Echoes from Tilden for concert band or wind ensemble (2009)
Just atop the Berkley hills overlooking the San Francisco Bay sits Tilden Park, a 2,079 acre open space featuring groves of Redwood and Eucalyptus trees, fabulous hiking trails, fields of California Poppies, and a gorgeous view of the Golden Gate. In addition to these natural delights the park offers a variety of other activities, and two of these in particular serve as the inspiration for this piece: the historic 1911 Hershell-Spillman “Menagerie Edition” Carousel with its 59 hand-carved circus animals to ride and sinister gargoyles looking on from above, and the 15-inch gauge Tilden Steam Trains that dutifully wind their way through the lush green forest. For years these attractions have given pleasure to many a family on a sunny day overlooking the Bay.
But on foggy days, of which there are many in the Bay Area, the park lies shrouded in mystery, a blanket of thick mist concealing and muffling the vivid colors and sounds of these curious contraptions. At times like these, the imagination takes over. With visibility down to 15 to 30 feet at best, the Carousel “disappears” and only its music echoing through the park’s many canyons betrays its very existence. Likewise, the trains’ high-pitched whistles seem to come from areas of the park where there are no rails, as if the machines have thrown off their narrow iron fetters in favor of going wherever they so please. And then the strange and unsettling thought occurs: “With no one to watch them, what if the gargoyles have broken loose, loaded the circus animals aboard the steam trains, and are joyriding up and down the hills of Tilden Park?”
