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Reviews
about Creator of the Stars of Night
Locklair’s signature slowly-oscillating texture, used in many of his solo organ works, is grafted onto a rhythmically regular form of the plainsong “Conditor alme siderum.”
[His] vacillation between the expected notes of the mode and jarring deviations from it is singularly beautiful…Even without part divisions, the expansive texture and high tessituras suggest large choral forces. Long sustained lines and novel harmonic progressions make this languorous anthem somewhat difficult, yet it is an impressive addition to Advent repertoire.” — Jason Overall, Association of Anglican Musicians
about Phoenix for Orchestra
Dan Locklair — [a] Charlotte native — created “Phoenix” for organ, brass and percussion in 1985. Moody asked Locklair to orchestrate it in 2007 and led that premiere, so he knows how to get to the heart of the work.
A brass choir in the grand tier opened with the fanfare, tossing the theme to the brass onstage. Jaunty percussion and strings join them, until the strings take up a lyrical theme…The work takes on a stately processional mood for a while, until the brass upstairs take over again. The music is bold, then delicate, then builds to a bouncy brass and percussion segment that ends with a suitably rousing finish…Locklair’s Phoenix provided 10 solid minutes of pleasure. — Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer
“…his music is of such high craft and sophistication that is transcends any sense of a regional or national sound.”
–Jonathan Campbell
“…a composer of great originality and imagination who is the possessor of admirable compositional technique. He has as well an appreciation of vivid instrumental colors and their effectiveness in expressing ideas and emotions…”
–Classical Voice North Carolina