Park Life

Composer Jennifer Higdon finds the Smoky Mountains along the Wissahickon.

by Peter Burwasser | Photo by Michael T. Regan

Just as there are native New Yorkers who have never been to the top of the Empire State Building, so there are Philadelphians who are unaware of the sublime natural wonders of our magnificent park system. As a newcomer to the area (she came here in 1986 to study at Curtis and has never left), Jennifer Higdon was drawn strongly to the city's vernal interior spaces, which made her nostalgic for her childhood haunts in Georgia and Tennessee. "One of the first things that I remember about the park from my first trip was how much it reminded me of the Smoky Mountains, which I grew up at the base of and whose mountains and trails and creeks I have spent lots of time in. The Wissahickon felt so much like the Smokies." Higdon did not immediately think of churning her impressions into music, but when a commission came from the Network for New Music in 1998, her muse was ready.

"wissahickon poeTrees" is in seven movements, with the four seasons divided by three "progressing clock movements" that signify the consistent march of time and nature. Higdon did not use any literal models from nature, in the manner of John Cage, but rather considers her music making a force of nature in of itself. "I write by instinct. Nature is designed into it, especially the relationship of water and woods. There are a lot of running motifs in the work, representing water. Spring and autumn are more turbulent, while summer and winter are more stationary, arrival seasons."

Higdon is today one of the most celebrated composers of her generation, and 1998 was something of a watershed year for her. ""wissahickon poeTrees' was my first piece for mixed instruments." Higdon would go on to receive commissions from the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, pianist Gary Graffman and others, but there is something uniquely visionary and evocative about her homage to ancient natural elements within her adopted home town.

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