The Glastonbury Wilderness

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The Glastonbury Wilderness was begun in the late Fall of 2015, and I wrote the majority of it in December of that year in Bennington, VT to be premiered by the town's community orchestra, the Sage City Symphony.  It is inspired by my experiences in two different towns with the same name.  At the beginning of August of that year, I went on a two-day solo hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail just east of Bennington in the 'ghost' town of Glastenbury (pop. 8).  The trail passes through the vast and remote Glastenbury wilderness (notorious for the disappearance of several people over the past 80 years) and reaches Glastenbury Mountain, which was the goal of my hike.  After 10 miles of hiking, I reached the summit and climbed an old fire tower there where I had an incredible 360-degree view over 4 states and probably at least 100 miles.  While I was up there, looking east over the neighboring town of Somerset (pop. 2), I realized that a year before, perhaps even to the day, I was in Glastonbury, England (notice that the Glastenbury in Vermont seems to have a misspelling that has stuck) on the highest hill in that town, the Glastonbury Tor, looking out over a different Somerset, Somerset county.  That Glastonbury is a fascinating place filled with new-age magicians, Celtic myths, and legends about King Arthur, the Holy Grail, and even Jesus.  Although they are two very different places, I am fascinated by both of these Glastonburies and began to think that perhaps there was more in common between these two places than just their names.  This connection is what I wanted to explore in creating this piece.

I had spent that previous summer living in a small town in Somerset, England where I became acquainted with Cecil Sharpe's wonderful collection of “Folk Songs from Somerset,” some of which he found from singers in the very town I was living in.  I decided to use two folk songs from that collection, “Lord Rendal (Second Version)” and “As I Walked Through the Meadows” as the melodic basis of the piece to suggest the English Glastonbury.  The “wind” sounds produced by various extended playing techniques which open my piece come from the incredibly windy night I experienced on Glastenbury Mountain and up on the fire tower.  The title of the piece also unites the two places, using the English spelling of Glastonbury, but the “wilderness” from Vermont.  The piece ends with a grand chorale-like statement of one of the folk tunes in the brass, an expression of the amazing vistas at the summits of both this mountain and hill, all while the woodwinds use the other folk tune to swirl around it like wind.  My hope is that this piece gives some kind of impression of my experiences in and the connection between these two fascinating places.

Premiered March 13, 2016 by the Sage City Symphony Orchestra, Michael Finckel-conductor, at Bennington College, Bennington, VT.