Spirits of the Land
What to Listen For
Kauyumari:
Gabriela Ortiz declared that while she was composing Kauyumari, she noticed “how music has the power to grant us access to the intangible, healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound.” The power of music is undeniable. The music of Ortiz, a Mexican composer, has contemporary, rock, African, and Afro-Cuban influences; from the time she was a small child, she immersed herself in the twin disciplines of folk and classical music.
In Kauyumari, Ortiz devotes herself to making music meaningful. She wanted “to compose a piece that would reflect on our return to the stage following the pandemic, I immediately thought of the blue deer and its power to enter the world of the intangible as akin to a celebration of the reopening of live music. Specifically, I thought of a Huichol melody sung by the De La Cruz family – dedicated to recording ancestral folklore.”
She begins with a melody and continues to build in “an orchestral texture which gradually evolves into a complex rhythm pattern, to such a degree that the melody itself becomes unrecognizable giving rise to a choral wind section while maintaining an incisive rhythmic accompaniment as a form of reassurance that the world will naturally follow its course.” Can you sense its immutable power and accept its reassurance that the world will follow its course and “heal our wounds” and bind us to “what only sound can express?”
Ghost of the White Deer:
Ghost of the White Deer is a romantic and dramatic Bassoon Concerto which tells the legend of two young Chickasaw Indians in love. In this concerto, the bassoon depicts all aspects of the characters, specifically the sound and calling of the sacred white deer.
The work is a continuous narrative divided into seven sections: Prelude, Laughing Minko, The Forest, Shared Dreams, Dawn/Sunrise, Out of the Ashes, and Ghost of the White Deer.
The characters portrayed in this concerto include a brave and young Chickashaw warrior, Blue Jay, who fell in love with Bright Moon, the daughter of a Minko (Chief), and the sacred white deer itself. As you listen to the bassoon and supporting orchestra, try to identify the characters and the nature of their interactions. (Look to the accompanying program notes to read Tate’s full account of the legend.)
Symphony No. 3 in F major:
Brahms’ ardent Symphony No. 3 offers the listener direct and uncomplicated pleasures, which is not to say that this is a simple work: the symphony is a structure whose accessibly tuneful “exterior” conceals its intricately organized “interior.”
Allegro con brio
As the first movement begins, Brahms’s F-A-F motto is first introduced in the brass and then continued in basses. The three-note motto is presented boldly and in disguise, sometimes as melody, other times as accompaniment, or as something in between, remaining constantly in play. Listen especially for the return of this theme played on a solo French horn, signaling the beginning of the movement’s final recapitulation section.
Andante
Unlike the first movement, the middle movements offer a more intimate, introspective, song-like character. In the gracious slow Andante, the F-A-F motto is woven throughout every measure. Listen for F-A-F in the first theme, which moves from the clarinet to the bassoon.
Poco Allegretto
The most famous third movement sounds like a romantic, yearning waltz more than a fast, traditional Scherzo. It is in three-part ABA form but the instrumentation of the repeated A section is made distinctive by the different orchestration Brahms writes the second time through. In the movement’s beginning, listen to how the cellos play the sweeping melody, then pass it to the French horns. Finally, at the end, listen for the yearning theme in the violins.
Allegro
The dramatic finale begins with swirling energy, like a massive storm. It is a huge, lyrical, passionate movement, rich in melody, intensely exploited, altered, and developed. Listen for the F-A-F motto in the coda, heard first in the oboe and then in the French horn before its final statement in the flute. Then the violins softly take over, bringing the symphony to its very end in a quiet, peaceful chord rather than a loud, triumphant crash.
Gabriela Ortiz Torres: Kauyumari
Born: December 20, 1964, in Mexico City
Date of composition: 2021; commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Premiere: October 9, 2021, under conductor Gustavo Dudamel
Orchestration: piccolo and 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, 4 percussion, 1 harp, and strings
Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz has been immersed in folk and classical music since she was a small child. Her parents were founding members of the Mexican folk music ensemble Los Folkloristas. She performed on guitar with them while also studying piano and composition. Later, she studied at theÉcole Normale de Musique in Paris and then continued her studies at the Guildhall School and at the University of London, where she received a PhD in 1996.
After completing her studies, she taught at the National School of Music in Mexico City and at Indiana University. Her compositions have contemporary, rock, African, and Afro-Cuban influences. She has also composed pieces that incorporate experimental electro-acoustic elements.
Ortiz was Carnegie Hall’s composer-in-residence for the 24-2025 season. Her 2024 album Revolución diamantina, featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, and Maria Dueñas received three awards at the 2025 Grammys, including best contemporary classical composition. She won three awards at the 2026 Grammys for Yanga and Dzonot.
Regarding Kauyumari, Ortiz notes: “Among the Huichol people of Mexico, Kauyumari means the ‘blue deer.’ The blue deer represents a spiritual guide, one that is transformed through an extended pilgrimage into a hallucinogenic cactus called peyote. It allows the Huichol to communicate with their ancestors, do their bidding, and take on their role as guardians of the planet. Each year, these Native Mexicans embark on a symbolic journey to ‘hunt’ the blue deer, making offerings in gratitude for having been granted access to the invisible world, through which they also can heal the wounds of the soul.”
“I used this material within the orchestral context and elaborated on the construction and progressive development of the melody and its accompaniment in such a way that it would symbolize the blue deer . . . While composing this piece, I noted once again how music has the power to grant us access to the intangible, healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound. Although life is filled with interruptions, Kauyumari is a comprehension and celebration of the fact that each of these rifts is also a new beginning.”
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate: Ghost of the White Deer
Born: July 25, 1968, in Norman, Oklahoma
Date of composition: 2019-2020, commissioned by Dallas Symphony, Ghost of the White Deer was composed for and is dedicated to Ted Soluri, Principal Bassoon of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Premiere: The Dallas Symphony Orchestra premiered Tate’s Ghost of the White Deer, a concerto for bassoon and orchestra, Feb. 13-16, 2020.
Orchestration: solo bassoon; 3 flutes and piccolo, 3 oboes and English horn, 3 clarinets and bass clarinet, 3 bassoons and contrabassoon, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, 3 percussion, piano, harp, and strings
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a Chickasaw American Indian classical composer and pianist who expresses his native culture in symphonic music, ballet, and opera. His middle name, Impichchaachaaha', means “their high corncrib”; it is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. All of his compositions have been commissioned by major North American orchestras, ensembles, and organizations, and his works are performed internationally. Tate earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute of Music.
Ghost of the White Deer is a romantic and dramatic bassoon concerto that tells the legend of two young Chickasaw Indians in love. In this concerto, the bassoon depicts all aspects of the characters, specifically the timbre and calling of the sacred white deer.
In the story, “a brave and young Chikasha warrior, Blue Jay, fell in love with Bright Moon, the daughter of a Minko (Chief). The Minko did not like the young man, so he created a price for the bride that he was sure Blue Jay could not pay.
"‘Bring me the hide of the White Deer,’ said Minko. The Chikasha believed that all white animals were magical. ‘The price for my daughter is one white deer.’ Minko laughed. He knew that an albino deer was very rare and would be very hard to find. White deerskin was the best material to use in a wedding dress, and the best white deer skin came from the albino deer.
“Blue Jay went to his beloved, Bright Moon. ‘In one moon’s time, I will return with your bride price, and we will be married. This I promise you.’ Taking his best bow and his sharpest arrows, Blue Jay began to hunt. “Three weeks went by. Blue Jay was hungry, lonely, and scratched by briars. Then, one night during a full moon, he saw a white deer, which seemed to drift through the moonlight. When the deer was very close to where Blue Jay hid, he shot his sharpest arrow, which sank deep into the deer’s heart. But instead of sinking to his knees to die, the deer began to run. Instead of running away, he charged straight toward Blue Jay, with his red eyes glowing and his horns sharp and menacing.”
“A month passed, and Blue Jay did not return as he had promised Bright Moon. After months of waiting, the tribe decided that he would never return. But Bright Moon never took any other young man as a husband, for she had a secret. When the moon was shining as brightly as her name, Bright Moon would often see the white deer in the smoke of the campfire, running, with an arrow in its heart. She lived believing the deer would finally fall, and Blue Jay would return.”
Tate’s optimism and joyful energy are an inspiration, and his passion for collaboration imbues everything he creates. Tate’s work always centers on native peoples and cultures. Tate has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Cantori, NY, and Turtle Island Quartet. He is a three-time recipient of the American Composers Forum, a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program recipient, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient, a governor-appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma, and an Emmy Award-winner for his work on a documentary, The Science of Composing.
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3, in F Major
Born: May 7, 1833, in Hamburg
Died: April 3, 1897, in Vienna
Date of composition: 1883
Premiere: Dec. 2, 1883
Orchestration: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, percussion, and strings
Brahms was 43 when he finally completed his first symphony, a project that had occupied him sporadically for more than 20 years. Symphony No. 2 followed only a year later, but there was another gap of six years until he finished his third symphony in 1883. During the interim period, Brahms composed other important works, including his Violin Concerto, Tragic Overture, and his Piano Concerto No. 2.
Symphony No. 3 was better received at its premiere than Symphony No. 2 had been. Although Wagner had died earlier in 1883, a fierce Wagner-Brahms feud had not subsided, and fanatical members of Wagner’s cult tried to poison the atmosphere at the Brahms premiere, almost bringing about a duel. Following its premiere, Symphony No. 3was performed frequently. After each performance, Brahms polished and revised the score further; in six months, it was finally published.
Commentators often remark that Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 was an overt tribute to Beethoven, and Symphony No. 2 a homage to Schumann. In Symphony No. 3, Brahms was, at last, understood to be completely himself. “Many music lovers will prefer the titanic force of the First Symphony,” his friend, the powerful critic Eduard Hanslick, wrote after the Third’s premiere, “others prefer the untroubled charm of the Second, but the Third strikes me as being artistically the most nearly perfect.” This ardent work offers the listener direct and uncomplicated pleasures, but it is not a simple work: the symphony is a structure whose accessibly tuneful “exterior” conceals an intricately organized “interior.” Brahms here is more personal and intimate than in his first two symphonies, but Symphony No. 3has no less vitality or strength than those that preceded it.
One element of the symphony every listener can trace throughout is a musical motto made up of just three notes: F, A (or A-flat), and F, notes that had extra-musical significance for Brahms. In 1853, his friend Joachim, one of the greatest violinists of the 19th century as well as a composer, had taken as his motto, Frei aber einsam (“Free, but Lonely.”) Represented by the first letters of the words, this motto inspired the F-A-E Violin Sonata. When Brahms finished Symphony No. 3, he was a bachelor who declared himself to be frei aber froh, (“free but happy”). His F-A-F motto and some altered variants of it are everywhere in this symphony.
© Susan Halpern, 2026