Cleveland Flats Symphony

by Richard D Rinehart From the waters of Lake Erie, travel up the Cuyahoga River
and through the entertainment and industrial heart of Cleveland Ohio.
An area known as the Cleveland Flats.

Excepts from The Cleveland Flats Symphony accompanied a 3D video of the Flats area which was premiered at the 2009 Bridge Project, an arts and technology festival held in downtown Cleveland. The 3D video was crafted by local multimedia artist Jay Horowitz.

***Diane Gray will choreograph a dance to a short suite from the Cleveland Flats Symphony for a Verb Ballets performance April 8, 9, 10 & 11th at Cleveland Public Theater (CPT). Verb Ballets will dance to the complete work at a perfomance in October of 2010.

Full score available (22212-2231-strings).

Movement I

All is tranquil as we begin our voyage from the calm waters of Lake Erie towards the headwaters of the Cuyahoga River. At the river's mouth, we pass Whiskey Island, only to be delayed by a lowered drawbridge. A train rumbles across.

The bridge rises and like a curtain opening, the Flats entertainment district is revealed. We find ourselves immersed in a variety of sounds, symbolic of Cleveland's cultural makeup. We pause to experience the Flats "Night Club Serenade".

As we leave the entertainment district and head up collision bend, we traverse the indelible crooked path of the river and are passed by a freighter that all but consumes the river channel. The first movement ends with a cry from the river, symbolic of the hard tolls and environmental abuses the Flats’ area has experienced, only to have overcome.

Click for larger image

Movement II

Around yet more river-bends, under more bridges and traveling on, we approach the heavily industrialized "steel district". Both sides of the river are alive with activity as we pass through the heart of one of the world's largest steel making complexes. Traveling further yet, the river wavers between industrial utility and unspoiled natural beauty.

As we reach the river’s shallow limits, we reverse course. Winding back past everything we have just seen, we return with increasing speed to the quiet waters of Lake Erie from where it all began.