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Only Now, and Again was jointly commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard and by the Northern Illinois University Wind Ensemble, Larrry Livingston, conductor. One hopes that the work is given performances that do it justice.It is rare when a musical composition comes along that immediately becomes known as one of the best pieces written for wind ensemble. Certainly the wind ensemble has had works written by Dahl, Hindemith, Mozart, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky which are unique to the medium. Schwantner's . . . and the mountains rising nowhere undoubtedly belongs with the works of the above group of composers and, at the same time, might even surpass them in the area of creative and performance potential.Commissioned by the Eastman Wind Ensemble through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the work derives its title from a line in the poem "Arioso" by Carol Adler. The score is also dedicated to Adler whose poems are published by Pentagram Press in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Schwantner himself is associate professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music.Instruments called for in the score are six flutes (two doubling piccolo), two clarinets, four oboes (one doubling English horn), four bassoons, four trumpets, four horns, four trombones (fourth is bass trombone), tuba, amplified piano, contrabass and percussion (6 players). The list of percussion instruments goes on and on and includes such unusual items as four crystal water glasses tuned to the composer's instructions, water gong, crotales, and bell tree. Instrumentalists are required to sing as a celestial choir. Men are advised to sing
