Update Title: 123325CC-DFAC-4070-A0CA-577C323D4660

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The work called Four American Portraits was composed during my extended period as guest professor at Ohio State University, and premiered by the Columbus Pro Musica in April 1986.  Originally entitled Four Ohio Portraits, it derives all of its material from music associated with that midwestern state.

The piece consists of an initial statement, using melodic and harmonic fragments of the '60s rock tune "Hang On, Sloopy" --a trademark of the Ohio State University marching band--and a 1908 presidential campaign song for William Howard Taft.  Four variations follow that initial statement, and make use of its material.  Each variation is intended to evoke associations with a famous American.  These are, in order of the variations:  Thomas Edison, Lilian Gish, Neil Armstrong, and Jesse Owens--incidentally, all natives of Ohio.

The sequence of variations should suggest the traditional four-movement pattern of a symphony, with the second (Lilian Gish) "movement" being slow and lyric, and the third brilliant and scherzo-like.  A slow and fairly mysterious bridge passage then connects the "scherzo" to the rapid, exuberant Jesse Owens "finale."

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