CYCLES: Four Centuries, One Musical Thread -
Conductor and Musical Artistic Director Michael McLean described this program by stating, “cycles are fundamental to music—and to life: repetition and variation, tension and release, growth and decay, desire and loss. Seasons return, patterns repeat, and sometimes patterns are broken.”
“Our journey begins with the deeply personal cycle of a human life. In Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, love, desire, fate, and loss culminate in Dido's lament, where a repeating bass line carries us inexorably toward death. Vivaldi's Autumn expands our perspective to the natural world, where harvest, celebration, rest, and renewal unfold within the great recurring cycle of the seasons.
In Arvo Pärt's Fratres, we move beyond the human and natural worlds into something more abstract and timeless. Repeating musical patterns become a meditation on stillness, transformation, and the passage of time itself.
From this contemplative space, Ground on “The House of the Rising Sun” returns us to the human condition—and to the recurring cycles of night and day, addiction, and patterns passed from one generation to the next. Here, repetition becomes both a musical structure and a reflection of the patterns we struggle to change.
But cycles can also sustain and unite us. The concert concludes in the exuberant world of Motown, where repeating bass lines, familiar chord progressions, and irresistible rhythmic grooves transform repetition into celebration. What was once a symbol of fate becomes a source of movement, connection, and collective joy—a street celebration of life itself.
Across four centuries, ground basses, ostinatos, harmonic patterns, and grooves connect seemingly distant musical worlds. Rather than a collection of separate works, CYCLES unfolds as a single dramatic arc—from the individual to the universal, from darkness to light, from isolation to community.”
https://bachwhisperer.substack.com/p/making-sound-visible?r=62f16p&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_id=97757_v0_s00_e0_tv2_a1dennhb8f6x6b&fbclid=IwY2xjawVKV2NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5to5Vsyl_tVmoHvyvx22U04H3lpDU87if9fdcYKZdigfKfSqphdknz4cL9Mw_aem_hoXxbl5Ojgee7HPARkn9Rw
https://www.interlochenpublicradio.org/ipr-news/2026-10-23/from-baroque-to-motown-tc-musicians-form-new-ensemble-that-spans-centuries
