Review of the Falling Water River Orchestral Debut

By Kay Shelton

On an early September evening, an audience in Dubuque had the opportunity to experience a masterpiece in progress.  Before artists began shifting away from producing complete albums and instead creating one song at a time for MP3 downloads, the duo Switchback produced “Falling Water River” as a tribute to fallen soldiers in 2005.  Since then, conductor of the Grand Pops Orchestra, Paul Hemmer, orchestrated the complete album, performed last weekend with Switchback and the orchestra.  This orchestration involved transforming music for two lead singers and two guitars (or a mandolin) and a couple of background instruments into music for a small orchestra and chorus, totaling over two dozen performers. (Click here to listen to a sample of music from the orchestral debut).

I hope the audience had a sense of how brilliant the orchestration was for this work. Orchestration is an art, a craft, and a science all rolled into one. Not even Beethoven got orchestration right, according to Richard Wagner who re-orchestrated significant sections of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. (In Beethoven’s defense, the technology of brass instruments changed by Wagner’s lifetime.)

Orchestration takes knowledge of all the capabilities of the instruments and what happens with the sound when they are blended together.  It takes knowledge of how to write the notes for the various instruments because they are not all the same. None of that is as easy as it may seem. What bowing should the violins use? Should there be solos for the melody and which instruments should play them? There are dozens of different percussion instruments, which ones to choose? Those seemingly simple questions are not so simple.  Then, add in a chorus; a celeste; and the lead voices, guitars, and mandolin of Brian and Marty. When should the chorus sing, and when should they not sing? Everything becomes a choice, but based upon extensive knowledge.  There are literally thousands of different choices to make in orchestration.

The Grand Pops Orchestra is smaller compared to a full-sized symphony orchestra and that is more of a challenge, too. There is only one flute, one oboe, one trumpet, one trombone, etc., etc., etc. One wrong choice could result in a very exposed sound with the size of the pops orchestra. There were no wrong choices in the orchestration. The celeste, known mostly for the iconic “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Tchaikovsky can easily become abused and turned into a gimmick—not so in this work.  Instead, the celeste added beauty and dignity to an otherwise tragic event, the death of a soldier.

Probably the best section of the work is “Requiem” The sound of the violins was ethereal, like it came down from Heaven itself.

Overall, however, despite the theme of the music, “Falling Water River” is not overly dramatic.  There are some bright spots in the music.  Usually performers remain motionless, stoic, and seemingly uncaring when they are sitting on stage, waiting for their turns.  The performance in Dubuque shattered that mold, too.  A couple of the women in the chorus tapped their feet and nodded their heads in time with the music in between their singing parts.  It was refreshing to see the performers not hide their enjoyment of the music.

It was difficult to absorb the sheer genius of this work in just one performance. There was a second performance of “Falling Water River” the next day but my work schedule was a major barrier.  Otherwise, I would have grabbed a hotel room in Dubuque on the spur of the moment and heard the work again the next day. 

A few years ago, one of my co-workers got sent to Iraq in the National Guard.  He returned two years later.  The first time I saw him again, I gave him a hug but he held me more closely and tightly than I ever expected, and he rested his warm cheek against mine.  It was a sense of touch that I cannot forget.  Now I understand.  It was as though that former soldier understood how lucky he was to return, unharmed, and he conveyed his luckiness in one short embrace.  When I hear the brighter places in “Falling Water River,” I can almost feel him holding me tightly.  I cannot, however, imagine what it must be like for those whose loved ones never returned, and they will never feel that kind of a touch from their soldiers again.