Four Architectures in Normal, Illinois by Harrison Collins

Four Architectures in Normal, Illinois is a musical exploration of “the elements”, four adjacent architectural works of art on the Illinois State University campus. Each of the four architectures corresponds to one of the classical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Each movement of the piece, titled after a defining feature of one of the architectures, seeks to musically explore these massive, yet understated works of art by interpreting their structures and the elements with which they are associated. Additionally, each movement’s pitch material is taken from a specific pitch interval and scales associated with that interval. Pillar, associated with fire and utilizing the major third, aims to explore fire as both incredibly destructive and as incredibly fragile by exploring similar musical material with different implements to create notable differences in timbre and volume. Bowl, associated with water and utilizing the perfect fourth, uses literal bowls as the centerpiece of the movement. It pseudo-programmatically explores the calm of still water and then transitions into moving water, growing more rapid and powerful until it eventually crashes back into stillness. Spiral, associated with air and utilizing the tritone, aims to explore the light and fleeting nature of air through fragmented pitch and rhythmic material and the hum of cymbals. This movement heavily features the güiro, as the architecture has numerous large spines that, when scraped with a large enough implement (like a tree branch), sound like an enormous güiro. Tree, associated with earth and utilizing the perfect fifth, aims to explore the power of earth through the dark, earthy tones of the low marimba and low drums and a constant steady beat. The end of the movement concludes the work in a rapturous way, with references to Pillar that bring the musical material of the work full-circle.