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Don Freund’s Word on the Street brings “vernacular” tunes, rhythms, and attitudes to the medium
of the chamber orchestra and the developmental processes beloved by composers of concert art
music. This 10-minute celebration of the joys of rock and blues and counterpoint and orchestration
falls into five clearly delineated sections.
Word on the Street gets down to business immediately with a bright declamatory main tune — a
rising 4-note phrase answered by a syncopated riff. This tune and its chatty counterpart get a
thorough work-out, moving through the choirs of the orchestra in a variety of keys and
juxtapositions, building to a unison statement that suddenly slams on the brakes. The energy
subsides in the following section, which features sustained solo lines over a repeated bass-line
mantra that is quietly inaugurated by the violas and cellos. A sudden gear-shift opens the third
section in a fast-triple feel; a surging undercurrent accompanies a sassy tune first heard in the flute
and oboe. The surging expands and the tune gets edgier, erupting into a dialog between timpani
and strings, and paving the way for another gear-shift, this time into a heavy triple-time heroic
blues. This slower wave figure gets weightier and weightier, eventually grinding to a halt. A
whispered glissando ignites the fifth and final section, a hyperkinetic chattering imitative texture
that drives towards an exuberant return of the opening tune.

Word on the Street is dedicated to Roger Briggs and the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra.

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