Ludlow: Four Scenes for Orchestra commemorates the massacre of striking mine-workers and their families in Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914 - a turning point in the history of the American labor movement.
• The first movement represents the ethnic hodgepodge of the miners’ camp with 11 folk songs from 10 different nationalities: American (two songs), English, German Jewish, Greek, Italian, Macedonian, Mexican, Romanian, Russian, and Westphalian. In honor of Louis Tikas, the strike’s leader, the Greek tune initially heard on the clarinet often takes the lead.The folk songs gradually coalesce around the two main themes, which have been introduced in fragments.
• The Death Special was the strikers’ nickname for an improvised armored car, mounted with a machine gun, that the mine-owners’ detective agency used to harass the strikers. The rondo theme is intensified at each return by altering its harmonic context without changing the theme’s pitches.The continuously repeating nine-and-a-half-beat rhythmic ostinato spells “death” in Morse code. In several rhythmic augmentations it also affects the movement’s proportions while providing seemingly random interjections.
• The third movement depicts the climactic event of the assault on the camp: The fire in which two women and eleven children suffocated. The “death” rhythm reappears at the climax, where the first movement folksongs are devoured by the flames.
• The finale is an outpouring of grief that never leaves D minor and ends with a choked echo of the first movement.
This is scored for a standard Haydn-Mozart orchestra. (I would dearly love to score it for a larger orchestra; however, the orchestra that's most likely to perform it is a chamber orchestra.) The string section is oversized simply because I have the full Orchestral Strings and not the full Chamber Strings. It's scored in Sibelius, and realized fairly quick-and-dirtily in Digital Performer using Orchestral Strings 1 & 2, Woodwinds 1 & 2, Brass 1 (but Triple Horn except for the stopped horn notes), and Tympani A. Because there are only double winds and brass, I steered away from sections, using multiple solo instruments when possible (flutes 1 & 2) and different articulations where necessary (e.g., oboe sustain, oboe legato).
Any feedback appreciated - thanks!
Mark Arnest
