In 2005 I was invited to write a film score for a documentary about the French-American frontiersman, naturalist and artist, John James Audubon. Celebrated today for his remarkable paintings of birds, he lived in obscurity for a time in Cincinnati; there is a statue of him just across the river in Kentucky.

Our public library has a first edition of his famous “The Birds of America,”
-- 435 hand-coloured, life-size prints, measuring about 39 by 26 inches and including images of a half dozen birds now extinct.

I sought musical expressions that would evoke the images such a film would offer: there would be close-ups of Audubon’s paintings but also live-action shots of birds rising from wetlands or flying in v-formation. There would be shots suggesting the vast American wilderness and portraits of Audubon himself, conveying his rugged energy and idealism. I was excited! I got to work.

Then my involvement in the film project was suddenly terminated. The preliminary drafts I submitted were not to the liking of the producer. He was very kind about it, even apologetic. But the music I was creating was not what he wanted for the film. He sent me a generous “kill fee.” Oh well.

Meanwhile, my friend and fan, clarinetist Joe Rosen, had been pestering me to write a wind octet he could premiere with his friends at WindFest, an annual gathering of wind players in Canada. What's more, Joe is a bird-lover and a great admirer of Audubon. I redirected my ideas for the Audubon film score into a new wind octet.

(The wind octet is a curious ensemble: pairs of oboes, clarinets, French horns and bassoons. Mozart, Schubert and Dvorak wrote music for that combination; Mozart's octet is considered one of his greatest works.)

Thus came into being my octet, "Audubon," a musical homage to an heroic artist and frontiersman. The work is 11 minutes long, comprised of hymn-like music, a tender, romantic passage and a lively fugue. The solemn opening chords return at the end, framing the work.

So far as I know, my Audubon octet has been performed only once: when it was premiered for a tiny audience at the WindFest in Waterloo, Ontario on June 11, 2006. Fortunately, Joe Rosen arranged for a recording to be made.

To hear that premiere performance, click on the link above.

To see a PDF of the score, click on the link above.