THE LAKE AT FRANKLIN CANYON (2023) - For Orchestra by Corey Field (WITH SCORE)

THE LAKE AT FRANKLIN CANYON - for Orchestra
(2023)
Part of the orchestral trilogy Three Places in Los Angeles:
I: The Lake at Franklin Canyon (ca. 10 minutes)
II: Laurel Canyon (ca. 6 minutes)
III: Mulholland Drive (ca. 12 1/2 minutes)
These works may be performed separately, or together under the overall title Three Places in Los Angeles
Program Note:
The Lake at Franklin Canyon is a ten-minute orchestral work that can be performed on its own, or as the first movement of the trilogy titled Three Places in Los Angeles. It was completed in 2023 and has been recorded by The Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra on the First Leaf Music label.
Franklin Canyon Park is a conservancy area and naturally wild undeveloped refuge in the rolling hills above Los Angeles. In addition to hiking trails, it features the ultimate rarity in LA: a small lake nestled among the hills and pine trees, yet perched between the heavily built and populated areas to the north (the San Fernando Valley) and the south (Beverly Hills). As is so often the case with things in LA, the lake, despite its great beauty and effect, is a "pretend lake" that is actually a remnant of the original early 20th century LA aqueduct “water works”, a natural spring damned up to become a reservoir. Now wild with lush flora and fauna, hiking trails, and a museum that respectfully reminds the public of the original inhabitants who lived in this Garden of Eden, and a popular film and television location mere miles from the main studios.
Mountain forest lakes can be dark and mysterious and deep as well as sun-dappled and beautiful under a blue sky. They evoke memory and feelings in a completely different manner as compared with the more traditionally popular LA oceans and beaches.
In this work, impressionistic colors featuring minor seventh chords in gentle whole tone scales with magical bells, chimes and rolling cymbals evoke gentle movements of sunlight and wind on water, from which emerges a languid melody, under which the contrasting whole tone harmonies persist in a rich parallel harmonic world. This modal and harmonic parallelism allows the richly lyrical wide-ranging melody to remain slightly off balance, a precursor of some of the contrasts and clashes to come.
A new melody emerges in violins about halfway through with a rolling triplet accompaniment, evoking gently rolling water. The melody was originally created as a musical setting of a poem by my late daughter Karrlin Field, for soprano and orchestra, as part of my work titled Shakespeare Symphony.
Here, the melody is adapted and expanded as a symphonic, dreamy, central focus that the entire work approaches then reacts to with lyrical intensity. The melody evokes increasing levels of development up to an apotheosis where the previously atmospheric whole tone scales clash with the intensified melodic arc. After that catharsis, the work returns to the dreamy half world of the opening, as if waking up from a deep and emotionally intense dream, and returning to the evocative landscape of memory and dreams with which the work began.
The tension between whole tone scales and chords and traditional harmonic structure is the driving force of the work, in that technical sense the work is "about" augmented chords that act as fulcrums between major and minor tonalities and modes that allows the work to encompass symphonic development in contrast with dreamy atmosphere, a mix that allows for great emphasis on long melodies as well as dramatic development.
When performed as part of Three Places in Los Angeles, The Lake at Franklin Canyon is followed by two movements titled Laurel Canyon, and Mulholland Drive. While all three works can be performed separately, the emotional arc of the combined three movements is especially satisfying: the nostalgic dreaminess and intensity of The Lake at Franklin Canyon gives way in perfect contrast to the melodic and dance-like and raucous Laurel Canyon, a rebirth of life with a joyous rock n' roll drum solo. Mulholland Drive is a journey all its own: a ribbon of road between the starry sky and the jewel-lit city lights that runs the length of Los Angeles and thus tells the story of each of us, and millions of us at the same time, concluding the trilogy with a communal hymn and sunrise.