Adventures of Harold (2017)
PURCHASE SCORE
Adventures of Harold
solo vibraphone with crotales // 5:30
Premiere: January 28, 2018
Commissioned by Christopher Swist
Program note:
Adventures of Harold is a musical interpretation of the children’s book, Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crocket Johnson. In this book, a boy named Harold explores the world through his own drawings. With a single purple crayon, the boy creates imaginative scenes that depict his inner thoughts, including a monster beneath an apple tree, a ride in a boat, a whole lot of pies, a hot air balloon, and a city scape. At the conclusion of the book, Harold draws his own bed, climbs into it, and falls asleep. In the composition, Harold’s horizontal line is represented by a low-pitched, rolled note on the vibraphone. Present in every scene is the crescent moon, represented by bowed crotales (antique cymbals). The composition creates an aural painting of Harold’s illustrations, with changes in mood and tempo to reflect Harold’s active imagination.