Screamer! - a three-ring blur for orchestra

SCREAMER! - a three-ring blur for orchestra is a short essay depicting the blurred memory of a circus, explores the wide range of emotions often associated with the big top, ranging from silly humor, to excitement, to suspense and fear. It was originally composed in Ann Arbor, MI in October and November of 2002, and premiered by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra on February 11th, 2003, conducted by Laura Jackson. The reduced orchestration was created for the Little Orchestra Society of New York, who gave the first performance on December 10, 2013 at Lincoln Center.

The term "screamer" is one long associated with the American Circus tradition, and can mean one of two things. First, it was the nickname given by circus folk to the steam calliope, the piercingly loud and often out-of-tune instrument used to attract attention to certain areas within the circus, or to provide music for circus parades, announcing its arrival in a new town. More commonly, however, the term "screamer" refers to circus marches, generally taken at breakneck speed and, in their original circus context, ending abruptly with a B-flat major chord as soon as the action in the ring had concluded. Henry Fillmore’s The Circus Bee, Karl L. King’s Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite and (perhaps most famously) Julius Fucík’s Entry of the Gladiators are classic examples of this genre, which can still be heard today in expanded arrangements for symphonic wind ensemble.

Although John Philip Sousa’s The Stars and Stripes Forever, arguably the most famous American march, is not technically a screamer, it was, in fact, used in the circus, and makes a brief appearance in this piece. Essentially, were the tightrope walker to fall, or some other such horror occur, the band would strike up the Sousa as a cue to send in the clowns to distract the audience while the medics tended to the injured performer.

It is from this somewhat warped perspective that I began my work, imagining a circus out of control, doing my best to combine the best of the light and dark elements that the circus had to offer in the form of six micro-movements, including: Screaming! - Ponies! - Clown Car Mayhem! - The Coulrophobic Tightrope! - Big Top Falling! (homage à C.E.I) - Again, Screaming!

SCREAMER! is dedicated to William Bolcom.

David T. Little
January 5, 2010