Silk Road Suite

SILK ROAD SUITE – for cello and percussion

I Mediterranean Shores (cello solo)

II Desert Chase (cello & percussion)

III Yellow Fields (cello & percussion)

IV The Great Wall (cello & percussion)

The route taken by Marco Polo on his epic journey has become known to history as the Silk Road. The suite is set in four movements that trace a musical journey from the Mediterranean Shores and seaports to the ancient cities of China, beyond The Great Wall. Although the course of the Silk Road was too desolate to support a large population, small raiding parties could exist very well drawing water from isolated water holes and occasionally engaging in a Desert Chaseto garner necessities and luxuries from passing caravans. Before entering the great walled city of Chiang-an by the west gate, the Silk Road travellers found themselves in the Yellow Fields of the fertile Wei River valley. The yellow is from the loess, the fine dust that for millennia has blown from the northern steppes, filling both earth and air.

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