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Program Notes:
Quetzalcoatl is the Mayan God of wind and rain. I stumbled upon a children’s book called How Music Came to the World: An Ancient Mexican Myth retold by Hal Ober. The premise was that Quetzalcoatl and his brother, Tezcatlipoca, the sky god, plotted to bring music to the world by stealing musicians from the Sun God. I thought it would be interesting to adapt this story about music, through music. The beginning of the pieces begins with a spacious opening to represent a world with no melodic sounds. From there, Quetzalcoatl’s theme arrives with falling Woodwinds, rising Strings, and rhythmic brass. The piece then outlines the conversation with his brother through the alto flute solo in Letter B, the travel to the House of Sun in Letter C, the hiding of musicians at E, the wind god raging and scaring the humans into submission at F, and finally a reluctant rhythmic ending at G to symbolize a world with sound.