The Zoo Keeper

Composer

Ruth Young

General Information

Year: 2006

Duration: 6 minutes

Publisher: Unpublished (Further details from Shea Lolin)

Instrumentation

Flute I-II

Oboe

Bb Clarinet I-III

Bb Bass Clarinet

Bb Contrabass Clarinet

Eb Alto Saxophone

Bb Tenor Saxophone

Eb Baritone Saxophone

Bassoon

Contrabassoon

Programme notes

The Zoo Keeper consists of two parts, however the music is structured into one complete movement with a short coda section designed to recapitulate the
energy from the opening. I purposefully chose a programatic title for this piece as I wanted to somehow define the nature of the music in a physical sense whilst also entertaining the zoo fascination I have had since childhood. The story is very simple, a zoo keeper is walking around the wildlife park, checking up on the animals. The music illustrates his working day, identifying with his character and those of the various creatures he is looking after. At the start of the piece I set up a repeated rhythm in the bass clarinet, baritone saxophone and bassoon parts to symbolize the zoo keeper walking out into the park, only 9 bars later heis greeted by the first interjection, from here onwards I have overlapped many more short little bursts of melody and fragments of material to try and characterize the variety of wildlife in my imaginary zoo. The majority of the music is contrapuntal in style, featuring syncopated melodic fragments. Although there are sections which exploit the benefits of the lower ranged instruments as supporting, rhythmic and harmonic bass parts, I wanted to utilize the strengths of each individual instrument, acknowledging also that
each has potential as a soloist.

Performances

Bloomsbury Woodwind Ensemble (Shea Lolin, conductor) at St. Nicholas' Church, Manor Park, London, UK on 30 September 2006