Mackey: Aurora Awakes (for Orchestra)

Westwood Symphony Orchestra
Austin, Texas
Joshua Thompson and Thomas Turpin, Directors
Gary Lewis, Guest Conductor
December 11, 2019
Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center

Aurora Awakes by John Mackey, arranged for orchestra by Craig B. Davis for performance at the Midwest Clinic.
Aurora – the Roman goddess of the dawn – is a mythological figure frequently associated with beauty and light. Also known as Eos (her Greek analogue), Aurora would rise each morning and stream across the sky, heralding the coming of her brother Sol, the sun. John Mackey’s Aurora Awakes is a piece about the heralding of the coming of light. Built in two substantial sections, the piece moves from a place of remarkable stillness to an unbridled explosion of energy – from darkness to light, placid grey to startling rainbows of color. Though Mackey’s work is known to use stylistic imitation, it is less common for him to utilize outright quotation. However, here he uses two direct quotations of other musical compositions: he bases the ostinato of the second section of the piece on the familiar guitar introduction to U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name,” and concludes the work with a nearly identical orchestration of the final chord from the Chaconne from Gustav Holst’s First Suite in E-flat for Military Band – an unmistakably vibrant timbre that won’t be missed by aficionados of the repertoire. Program Notes by Jake Wallace.