(Portland)

Oregon
This fantasy tells the story of Oregon, one of America's north-western states. Traveling by train on the
Northern Pacific Railroad, the listener is taken through the fascinating Oregon landscape. Indians,
cowboys, golddiggers and hooded wagons will file past on this adventurous journey. The piece has some
similarities with a soundtrack of a movie. Various melodies, which could be the main themes of a
movie,pass the review.
The piece begins in a slow movement, introducing the first theme in minor. Then we hear in the
following fast movement the trombones imitate the train, whistling the steam-flute. We hear the
characteristic minor theme again, but now in different variants (also in major). The rythmic structure of
"western" stile and rock succeed each other. This is leading to the slow movement, where the signals of
horns and trumpets introduce a wonderful vocal melody. After this characteristic melody, the fast
movement appears shortly again, the trombones whistling the steam-flute again (now in major). We
hear also some musical elements, that plays a part in the following Presto. Barchanges, jazzy chords,
interesting rhytmic patterns (with bongo) and an original theme are the characteristics of this Presto.
After this, the horns announce the last section of the piece. Interesting is the fact that we hear in this
Allegro section a variant of the vocal melody in the slow movement. Also the Presto theme returns
shortly, followed by the Allargando, which is a grand characteristic end of a soundtrack. The movie of
our travelling fantasy has come to an end.