Yellowstone National Park  

The Composer

Jordan Jinosko

Composer Jordan Jinosko..

The Music

Of Fire and Water

Written for violin and marimba and approx. 12 minutes in duration. In the composer’s words,

 “Drawing its title from the words of the environmentalist John Muir (who once described Yellowstone as “a strange region of fire and water”), this piece presents a series of vignettes that collectively comprise a brief history of the park.

 ”Gold” expresses the longing felt by settlers who arrived during the mid-1800s Gold Rush, marking the beginning of a new era of desperation. For these miners, who suffered extremely harsh conditions, gold provided hope for a better life. Musically, the shimmering sextuplet motif that moves through various chords evokes the glint of gold in a flowing river.

 “Fire” celebrates the beautiful yet terrifying geothermal features of Yellowstone: geysers, thermal pools, and hot springs. This movement also contemplates the likely eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano whose explosion would cause global famine, extinction, and the long-term cooling of the planet.

 Drawing on the park’s long history of natural beauty, “Spirit” offers up a conclusive, lyrical, and folk-music-inspired tune. Its melody presents the timeless spirit of Yellowstone—the soul shared by its animals, natural wonders, and all the people who have explored the region since the Pleistocene.”