This piece was commissioned by the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra with support from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. This composition describes the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the emotions and experiences that coincided with each stage. The title of this piece is taken from another orchestral piece ‘The Four Seasons’ by Antonio Vivaldi. Similar to Vivaldi’s piece, ‘The Four Seasons of COVID-19’ also outlines the four seasons beginning with spring. However, this work illustrates the stages of the pandemic as it progresses through the seasons instead of the character of each season as in Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’.
The first movement is entitled ‘Spring – First Wave’ and illustrates the anxiety and panic felt at the beginning of the pandemic with the first wave performed by ascending lines that become increasingly faster in tempi and that are moving towards a higher tessitura to show the height of the first wave.
The second movement is entitled ‘Summer – Time to Reflect’ and depicts the calm of the summer after the stressful spring. The instruments carry a melody throughout sharing it among instrument families (the strings, the brass, the woodwinds etc.) to show the cohort system that was adopted to keep families safe. This movement also has several solo lines throughout to depict the isolation and quarantine that many endured.
The third movement ‘Fall – Second Wave is Coming’ shows the start and stop motion felt through the fall with school back in and sports back on but then students having to quarantine and sports and other activities coming to an abrupt stop. Again, the music depicts the anxiety felt with society trying to get back to a new normal amidst the pandemic. This movement ends with wave-like rapidly ascending lines to show the second wave.
With no end in sight the last movement is entitled ‘Winter – This is Never Going to End’. This movement has a somber character with all of the instruments playing unison rhythm portraying a homophonic texture to show how united people were world-wide during the fight against the pandemic. People around the world have been sharing similar emotions of frustration, despair, and anxiety. However, the movement depicting summer did show some positive impacts of the pandemic as there was often more time for self-reflection. The last movement of the piece ends with a timpani solo showing the pent-up frustration towards an unending pandemic.
