Ghost Lightfor bassoon and pianoby Martin J. Van Klompenberg - American bassoonist and composer FROM THE COMPOSER: Ghost Light was inspired by an April 2020 article in the New York Times, entitled“The Ghost Light, A Howl for the Lost City of Broadway.”1 Despite plenty ofexperience performing in musicals, I had never before heard of the concept of theghost light, a single bulb placed on the stage by the last person in the theater tokeep the stage lit with just enough light to allow for safe movement throughout thetheater the following day. Outside of union strikes, there have only been threemulti-day closures of the entirety of Broadway, and each of the movements of thepiece, reflect these times.Dimmed Marquees refers to the air raid drills used during World War II, to ensurethat in the case of attack, the marquees of Broadway could be turned off. Theshows went on throughout the war, but throughout these exercises occurred.Musically, this movement is a loose nocturne, with melodic elements based aroundmusical motifs of shows of the 1940s, including Annie, Get Your Gun andOklahoma.Track 11 refers to the song “When September Ends,” from the Green Day album,American Idiot. This album led to one of the first musicals based around the eventsof September 11, 2001. I wanted this movement to emphasize the eerie feelings ofloss of that historic day. The minimalist nature of the movement, where the pianoplays the same measure continuously, portrays the tense anxiety of those first days.Same Day, Every Day was the most heavily influence movement from the article.In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic ground the world to a halt, and yetnews was happening SO fast, that despite the fact that we couldn’t leave ourhomes, it felt like the world was spinning faster on its axis. In honor of the 37 playsand musicals that had to lower their curtain, some never to re-open, the melodicmaterial is loosely based around a note set based on the names of the affectedshows.
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