Album Notes

Symphony #4 for the Virtual Orchestra is a four-movement work I completed this year. The first movement, Serving Two Masters, begins with the oboe announcing the first theme against the tremolo strings. The slow, dramatic build-up climaxes with the brass announcing a variation on theme two, first heard in the cellos and violas at measure twenty-three. In this section I use a sample and hold oscillating pad against samples of acoustic instruments. The movement ends with a triumphant section followed by darker counterpoint in the winds. Garden Dance is a dance in 11/8 which is very percussive and celebrates life in the Garden of Eden. Rebel Planet, the third movement (and title of this CD) expresses my feeling of how far our planet is from realizing its spiritual, social and intellectual potential, and how isolated we are because of it. The last movement, Light and Life, makes use of sampled choirs and gives expression to my vision of a civilization that is much closer to universal harmony than ours is at the present time. The Prelude and Fugue are short pieces using traditional techniques in a modern style and composed during the early 1980s. My Sonata for Virtual Cello and Piano was composed in 1982 and soon performed in concert on acoustic instruments. Because of advances in sampling technology and digital recording, I decided to produce the piece for virtual instruments and the version on this compact disc is the result of that effort. This new interpretation contains numerous improvements to tempos, phrasing and dynamics. The first movement is the only movement I have written to date which incorporates a 12-tone row which is used throughout sections of the movement in line with the classical rules of serial composition. But true to my own nature, I am a tonal composer and as such I interlace the atonal passages with tonal centers as my essential concern is the relationship between consonance and dissonance. The second movement applies the theme of the first movement and uses a different compositional strategy by working within a framework of thematic variation and development while drawing on influences from impressionism and American folk music (can you hear Old MacDonald?). Jerry Gerber San Francisco November 30, 2000