The Roaring Whirl

The Roaring Whirl

The Roaring Whirl was commissioned in 1991 for the Nottingham 'NOW' festival by UK clarinettist, Geraldine Allen, with funding from Nottinghamshire County Council, after having been several years in development with support from East Midland Arts and the Eastern Orchestral Board.

Composer, Sarah Rodgers, has devoted a significant part of her professional life researching and incorporating music from non-European cultures into her compositional output, producing works which engage with Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Oceanic and African traditions.

The Roaring Whirl is a music-narrative which embarks on a musical journey across the North Indian Punjab of Rudyard Kipling's 'Kim'. The vibrant atmosphere is wonderfully recreated in this remarkable work, introducing many facets of Indian life philosophy and beautifully synthesising the music of Asia and the West both instrumentally and compositionally. The improvising spirit of ragas and talas provides a thematic and rhythmic focus for each section of the piece which is imbued with Rodgers' own inspired musical instincts. A subtle scoring of clarinet, guitar, sitar and tabla evocatively crosses the cultural boundaries.

Movements:

1. Narrative 1: India Awakes
2. Narrative 2: Seventh Heaven
3. Narrative 3: Little Friend of All the World
4. Title Piece: The Roaring Whirl
5. Narrative 4: The Wheel of Life
6. Narrative 5: The Man under the Hat
7. Narrative 6; Golden Spokes of the Sloping Sun