Oregon Soundscapes

Oregon Soundscapes was commissioned by Alexandre Dossin for the University of Oregon SOMD Piano Studio, and premiered on April 17th, 2025. This series includes six pieces celebrating the wonder and beauty of Oregon: 1. Silver Thaw - "The Coming of Spring" (4') - This piece begins in a frozen-solid wonderland, trees covered in a layer of shining ice. However, as the thaw begins, the sounds of crackling and snapping sweep through the trees as the forest comes to life, signaling the return of spring. 2. Marble Metamorphosis - Inspired by the Oregon Caves - This piece was inspired by the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, a network of marbled underground passageways high in the Siskiyou Mountain Range in southern Oregon. It explores the resonant capabilities of the piano, with occasional flights of fancy and imagination as one spelunks into many interesting rooms with strangely-metamorphosed cave formations. 3. Shades of Pristine - Inspired by the Cascade Lakes - This piece was inspired by the pristine lakes of Oregon's Cascade mountain range, these lakes are some of the clearest in the world. Ranging through central Oregon from Diamond Peak to Mt. Hood, these gorgeous lakes are fed by snowmelt, rain, and underground springs. The music features aleatoric box notation, in which the performer switches between "cells" of music to create a continuously-shifting sheen of sound set over an exuberant melody in the bass. 4. The Violent Pacific - Inspired by Cape Perpetua and Heceta Head - The fourth miniature captures the power of a Pacific Ocean king tide, the waves smashing against rocks and spraying up into the wind. The piece features glissandos and passages of note clusters played with the fists. 5. In the Rose Garden - A song for love lost - "In the Rose Garden" was inspired by Portland's Washington Park and its beautiful Rose Garden, a popular social gathering place in the along Portland's southern border. It features two sections: a rhapsodic melody, written without time signature; and a, melancholic tune written in the style of a popular song. 6. Igneous - 'Fire Born' - Inspired by Newberry Crater - This exciting finale tells the story of the formation of Newberry Crater (and many other locations like it) in Central Oregon. Once a towering volcano, lava boiled upwards thousands of years ago and created a cataclysmic eruption that collapsed the volcano inwards on itself, creating the Newberry Caldera, and leaving miles of obsidian fields and igneous rock left over from the eruption.