Buffalo Altar: A Texas Symphony

L to R: Marc Sanders (Piano), Barry Corbin (Narrator), Todd Frazier (Composer), Steven Harrigan (Writer), (MC)

Buffalo Altar: A Texas Symphony was commissioned by the Institute of American Music of the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, and is the result of a three year collaboration between composer Jefferson Todd Frazier and writer Stephen Harrigan. “The Eastman School was interested in a musical piece about Texas,” Harrigan says. “We both responded immediately to the idea, but soon realized whata huge subject we had been handed, and what a challenge it would be to distill that subject down to a manageable theme.” Frazier and Harrigan both knew what they didn’t want–an earnest, stentorian musical documentary. They wanted something that felt alive and contemporary but also visibly connected to Texas’ rich and complex history. In the end, they decided the best way to tell the story of Texas was through the voice of a more-or-less

Buffalo Altar

representative Texan, an 81 year old oilman reminiscing about a long-ago morning in a West Texas canyon that changed his life. Buffalo Altar is scored for narrator, full orchestra, off stage brass quartet, off stage flute, a large farm bell, and western wind chimes. The short story, Buffalo Altar, by Stephen Harrigan, is based on an archaeological discovery of bison bones from a hunt at Caprock Canyons State Park, near Canyon, Texas, which revealed evidence of the Folsom culture, dating signs of civilized life in Texas to over 10,000 years ago.

Audience at the Perini Ranch Performance supporting the Buffalo Gap Historic Village and Museum

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You’re currently reading “ Buffalo Altar: A Texas Symphony ,” an entry on J. Todd Frazier

Published:: 12.27.07 / 5pm

Category:: Composition

About

Jefferson Todd Frazier (todd@jtoddfrazier.com)is a composer, educator and non-profit leader. He is the Founder of the American Festival for the Arts (afatexas.org), serves as Executive Director of Young Audiences of Houston (yahouston.org) – the managing partner of Houston Arts Partners (houstonartspartners.org) and is the Managing Director for The Center for Performing Arts Medicine at The Methodist Hospital (methodistperformingarts.com). His work in the non profit sector focuses on the arts as a unique and dynamic common denominator in strategic collaboration. He is currently working on research, education and accessibility collaborations between the K-12 Education, University, Texas Medical Center, and the Arts and Culture communities in Houston, TX.

He received his undergraduate and graduate training from The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and The Juilliard School in New York, NY. He has been honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, serves as a Director of the Texas Lyceum and is a Fellow of the US-Japan Foundation’s Leadership Program. On the occasion of the Juilliard School’s 100th anniversary in 2006, Frazier was recognized as one of 100 distinguished alumni and profiled in the Juilliard Journal’s “A Quiet Revolution: Juilliard Alumni and The Transformation of Education in America Through the Arts.”

As a composer, his love for history inspired his most recent work, “Thomas Jefferson”, a large scale oratorio based on the extraordinary life and contributions of the third president of the United States, receiving its Premiere on April 3, 2011 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. by the National Symphony Orchestra, soprano Renee Fleming and conductor Christoph Eschenbach. “It’s a beautiful work and the words of the Declaration of Independence come to life in a powerful way. I’m so happy to be singing Todd’s piece for the first time and it’s particularly special for me to perform this in our nation’s capital,” Ms. Fleming.

“Buffalo Altar; A Texas Symphony,” the first work in his long list of historically inspired compositions, is the story of Texas illuminated by narrator and orchestra (or piano) and is presently touring Texas with narrators Lucian Douglass, Tommy Thompson and Barry Corbin, of Urban Cowboy, Northern Exposure and The Closer fame. “Buffalo Altar”, commissioned by The Eastman School of Music and The University of Texas with the support of Dr. Robert Freeman, has recently become a popular highlight at literary festivals and historical events across the state.

Full Orchestral Version: http://jtoddfrazier.com/archives/26

Piano/Narrator Performance: http://www.youtube.com/user/FrazierJTodd

J. Todd Frazier

Buffalo Altar: A Texas Symphony

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