Beaufort Scales by Christopher Cerrone

“Beaufort Scales” is composer Christopher Cerrone’s dramatic and alluring music for women’s voices and electronics, performed by the acclaimed Lorelei Ensemble and the composer. Its title and primary text come from a 19th-century measure of wind speeds.

Cerrone writes about this work:
“I first became aware of the Beaufort scale because of Scott Huler's book ‘Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale, and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry.’ The book describes the author's obsession with the elegance and beauty of this 13-step, 200-word scale, still in use, which measures wind from its gentlest (‘Calm / smoke rises vertically’) to its roughest (‘The air is filled with foam and spray’).
“I came to share Scott's obsession and began composing a work for eight female voices and electronics, transforming the steps of the scale into 13 corresponding movements of escalating musical intensity. As the work proceeds and the weather becomes more chaotic, each of the voices is increasingly distorted. This mirrors our technology-saturated world, one in which uncanny and tumultuous weather has a growing presence.
“Interpolated between these 13 sung movements are four narrated interludes featuring four different texts—from the novels of Herman Melville and F. Scott Fitzgerald, the poetry of Anne Carson, and the King James Bible—all of which comment on the state of weather at one point in time, serving as both a reprieve and a reflection upon the surrounding movements.”

Christopher Cerrone’s compositions are characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a literary bent, and an affinity for multimedia collaborations. A Pulitzer finalist (for his opera “Invisible Cities”) and a Grammy nominee, Cerrone’s music has been commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, the Louisville Symphony, Third Coast Percussion, violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist Shai Wosner, and many other noted ensembles and individuals. “Cerrone is among that select group of young composers whose work is known beyond arcane musical circles.” (David Mermelstein, Wall Street Journal) “One of our most versatile composers under 40.”(Tom Huizenga, NPR) “A gifted composer with an impressive individual voice.” (Chicago Classical Review)

The Lorelei Ensemble, praised for its “full-bodied and radiant sound” (The New York Times) and “stunning precision of harmony, intonation . . . spectacular virtuosity” (Gramophone), has recorded the music of numerous living composers, such as David Lang and Kati Agócs,
as well as historical works by William Billings, Guillaume Du Fay, Alfred Schnittke, Tōru Takemitsu, and many others.


TEXT:

Prelude

Sea like a mirror. Smoke rises vertically. Calm.

Step 1

Ripples with scales, no foam crests.
Direction of wind shown by smoke drift but not by wind vanes.

Interlude 1

There was a faint, barely perceptible movement of the water as the fresh flow from one end urged its way toward the drain at the other. With little ripples that were hardly the shadows of waves, the laden mattress moved irregularly down the pool. A small gust of wind that scarcely corrugated the surface was enough to disturb its accidental course with its accidental burden. The touch of a cluster of leaves revolved it slowly, tracing, like the leg of transit, a thin red circle in the water. (F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby)

Step 2

Wavelets, small, still short, but pronounced. Crests with glassy appearance, but do not break.
Wind felt on face, leaves rustle, ordinary wind vane moved by wind.

Step 3

Large wavelets, crests begin to break. Glassy foam, white horses.
Leaves and small twigs in constant motion, wind extends white flags.

Interlude 2

[T]he not-yet-subsided sea rolled in long slow billows … The strong, unstaggering breeze abounded so, that sky and air seemed vast outbellying sails; the whole world boomed before the wind. Muffled in the full morning light, the invisible sun was only known by the spread intensity of his place; where his bayonet rays moved on in stacks. Emblazonings, as of crowned Babylonian kings and queens, reigned over everything. The sea was as a crucible of molten gold, that bubblingly leaps with light. (Herman Melville, Moby-Dick)

Step 4

Small waves becoming longer, frequent white horses.
Wind raises dust, loose paper, small branches move.

Step 5

Moderate waves of pronounced form (still short). Many white horses, some spray.
Small trees in leaf start to sway, crested wavelets on inland waters.

Step 6

Large waves, extensive white foam crests, some spray.
Large branches in motion, whistling in telegraph wires, umbrellas used with difficulty.

Interlude 3

The small hotel of Buergete is made of water. Outside, rain streams all night. Roofs pour, the gutters float with frogs and snails. You would not see me—I lie in the dark listening, swirling. Walls of the hotel are filled with water. Plumbing booms and sluices. A water clock, embedded in the heart of the building, measures out our hours in huge drops. Wheels and gears turn in the walls, the roaring of lovers washes over the ceiling, the staircase is an aqueduct of cries. From below I can hear a man dreaming. A deep ravine goes down to the sea, he calls out, rushes over the edge. The mechanisms that keep us from drowning are so fragile: and why us? (Anne Carson, The Anthropology of Water)

Step 7

Sea heaps up, white foam from breaking waves blowing in streaks with the wind.
Small trees in motion, resistance felt walking in the wind.

Step 8 (Gale)

Waves of greater length. Crests break into spindrift, blowing foam in well-marked streaks.
Twigs break from trees. Difficult to walk.

Step 9 (Storm)

High waves, dense foam streaks in wind, wave crests topple, tumble, topple, and roll over. Spray reduces visibility.
Structural damage occurs, chimney pots and slates removed.

Interlude 4

[T]he wind started blowing hard and the sea became rough. Black clouds appeared on the eastern horizon, and that night there was the worst storm I had ever seen. The thunder and lightning never seemed to stop. It rained violently and the ship was thrown in every direction. The crew was on deck trying to hold down the whaling boats. Then it was night and the worst part of the typhoon hit us. The violent wind and rain tore the sails and broke the masts and the towering waves flooded the deck. Suddenly I looked up at the masts and saw lights at the tips of the sails—they looked like candles. The sailors stood close together and stared in amazement at the fire that danced in the sky. (Herman Melville, Moby-Dick)

Step 10

Very high waves with long overlapping crests. Dense foam, sea surface appears white. Heavy tumbling of sea, shock-like, poor visibility.
Trees uprooted, structural damage occurs.

Step 11

Exceptionally high waves, concealing ships. Sea covered with patches of foam. Edges of wave crests blown into froth. (Poor visibility.)
Widespread destruction.

Step 12

The air is filled with foam and spray. Sea white with driving spray; visibility seriously affected.

Postlude

He replied, “When the evening comes, you say, ‘it will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’” (Matthew 16:2)

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984) has been commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, and the Cincinnati Symphony, among others and his opera Invisible Cities was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize. He was nominated for 2020 and 2022 Grammy Awards. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

christophercerrone.com