Arrangements of Tongues of Fire for wind orchestra and brass band are also available.
Commissioned by the Scotia Festival of Music for percussionists Evelyn Glennie and Beverley Johnston with partial support from the Canada Council of the Arts, Tongues of Fire is a concerto for percussion and orchestra in four movements set in alternating keys (movements 1 and 3 in D and 2 and 4 in A). As the title implies, there is a Pentecostal theme running through the piece but not in any programmatic sense. It is more a meditation on the emotional and psychological states of Christ's disciples during the early days of the Church than a depiction of the story of the Pentecost. It is also a reflection on the turbulent times that we live in presently and our desperate search for some semblance of structure in the midst of ever growing discontinuity and fragmentation.
In Darkness and Fear. A depiction of the uncertainty and fear that is the lot of anyone who experiences loss of faith and/or persecution. It is without a doubt, the "Heavy Metal" movement of the concerto, riding on an "unsteady" beat, but otherwise reminiscent of 1960's rock music. The upper register is penetrated by extremely high piccolo, flute and a "wonky" E-flat clarinet, while the low and middle registers are punctuated by percussion and brass blasting at full volume. Vocal sounds of aggression and suffering as well as woodwind multiphonic shrieks and aggressive horn glissandi complete this picture.
Eternity's Heartbeat. This is based on a pop song by the same title which is meant to accompany performances and recordings of Tongues of Fire. Unlike the relatively static key structure of the movements surrounding it, Eternity's Heartbeat is in constant tonal flux. The movement ends in the key it started but it does so in a tonally unexpected manner.
Of This World is a psychological study on the darker side of human interactions. Drawing its musical inspiration from the Pentecostal "speaking in tongues" musical traditions of the American south and mid-west, it chronicles the uneasy relationship between potentially aggressive instruments, such as percussion and the rest of the orchestra.
To the Ends of the Earth is an epic finale. The music's Hollywood character is unmistakable. This movement represents the evangelical fervour of Paul's message to the nations. In the underlying psychological drama of the larger work, the egotistical soloist of the previous movement is now joining forces first by the orchestral percussionists and finally with the entire orchestra, consciously avoiding antagonisms with any of the players and thus gradually transforming herself from a spot light seeker to a genuine leader. The four movements of the concerto could be understood as four stages of the ego's transformation, expressed through the soloist's constantly changing relationship with the orchestra.
Tongues of Fire rises to terrifying levels of sound during the heat of the struggle and is musically, utterly convincing in its complexity and noble in its ambition.
The work is sensationally beautiful, all four movements. When did you last hear a duel between a solo violin and a bass drum in which every note was clear? This admirably approachable concerto is subtly crafted, fully integrating the percussion part with the orchestral part and the rhythms are fascinating with all the sexy ostinatos, the bones of rhythm.
A self-conscious tour de force, Hatzis' composition could have been mere gimmickry but turned out to be profoundly moving both in its inventiveness and ideas.
