[#27] January 27, 2020
2015 | Wind Orchestra | Grade 6 | 55’- 60’| Ballet
Leroy Osmon’s The Garden of Earthly Delights is our composition of the week.
The ballet consists of an “Introduction,” three “Acts” (each having four “Scenes”) and an “Interlude” before “Act III.” The scenario is from the Hieronymus Bosch 1504 painting which came to be known as “The Garden of Earthly Delights.”
The music is a graphic representation of the Bosch painting and follows the same biblical narrative.
Although historians and critics may very well have interpreted the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of life’s torments of damnation, Leroy Osmon viewed the painting as a representation of a true garden of earthly delights, representing a musical panorama of the perfect liberty of a lost paradise.
The work has three direct references to Ravel, as well as brief moments from other composers (Ives, Grainger, Alwyn and Revueltas, among others) that have inspired and lead Osmon during his journey as a composer.
The Garden of Earthly Delights was premiered in Xalapa, Veracruz, México under Cesar Amora Aguilar, to whom the ballet is dedicated. It also received its American première at the 2015 WASBE Conference in San José, California, on July 13, 2015.
The ballet is published by RBC Publications of San Antonio, Texas, and has a duration of about 55 minutes.
“The Garden of Earthly Delights” is very unique, being one of the rare ballets composed for full symphonic band.
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