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SWANS AT PUNGO LAKE (2006) For its 75th Anniversary season, the North Carolina Symphony commissioned six composers to create musical “Postcards” to portray various sites in the state. Frazelle chose Pungo Lake, a desolate location near the coast, where tens of thousands of tundra swans and snow geese spend the winter. North Carolina’s tidewater wetlands are the winter home of the majority of the world’s eastern tundra swans, which nest in Alaska. |
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In the work, Frazelle explores sweeping helix patterns the thousands of birds form as they gather in and above a large field just before sunset, their white bodies electrified by the brilliant late-day light. The thunderous beating of thousands of wings and the loud drone of the birds' honking are also portrayed. The piece begins with spacious, undulating music in the marimba, strings and muted brass, suggesting the flat, open landscape. An oboe solo presents a second theme, which gains momentum as more and more lines enter, forming soaring, dancelike shapes. Eventually an accumulation of bird sounds and the thwacking of wings occurs in the entire orchestra, only to fade to the opening spaciousness as the birds disappear. Frazelle’s friend Alison Jones generously shared her on-site recording of the swan and geese sounds. The young percussionist John Langford helped the composer configure some of these sounds in his orchestration. As of 2006, this precious bird refuge remains in jeopardy. The U.S. Navy has threatened to construct and operate an outlying landing field for fighter jets near Pungo Lake, which is part of the Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge. |
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