On 11 October George Jackson and the Amarillo Symphony premiered Michael Daugherty’s Cadillac Ranch – a 22-minute set of variations inspired by the iconic public art installation located on the outskirts of Amarillo. It was commissioned by the orchestra in celebration its 100th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Cadillac Ranch.
Each of the work’s ten variations is inspired by one of cars showcased in the eponymous ‘Cadillac Ranch’ – a 1974 installation by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels. The vehicles, all built between 1949-1964, are symmetrically buried in a straight line nose-down in the dirt, their iconic tailfins pointing into the sky at the exact same angle, creating a monument to the Great American Road trip. Watch an excerpt from rehearsal here.
The work opens with a statement of the main musical motive – a four-note figure that echoes the syllables of “Cadillac Ranch”. Like the ten Cadillacs, musical pitches are often presented in rows of ten and rhythmic pulses in patterns of the same. Taking the form of a musical road trip, each variation also alludes to the popular music associated with the era of each iteration of the classic car, arranged in chronological order.
The road trip is a key creative prompt in Daugherty’s musical imagination, generating several depictions of the American landscape. On 7 June the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck premiered the double concerto Songs of the Open Road, featuring the orchestra’s principal oboe Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida and principal horn William Caballero as soloists; named for Walt Whitman’s great poem of travel from Leaves of Grass, the each of the 23-minute work’s six movements celebrates the American landscape as seen from its highways, from coast to coast.
Reflections on the Mississippi, a 20-minute tuba concerto that recently received its German premiere from WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Ruth Reinhardt and Hans Nickel, is inspired by Daugherty’s childhood road trips with his father and takes in the sights and sounds of the great river. Valley of the Moon, premiered by the Santa Rosa Symphony in 2022, is a 30-minute evocation of the remarkable landscape of Sonoma County, California, based on Daugherty’s car journey through it in 2021.