for symphony orchestra
I. The Voyage to Lilliput (Gulliver’s Theme)
II. Land of the Lilliputians
III. The Voyage to Brobdingnag
IV. Gildrig and the Land of the Giants
V. The Voyage to Laputa
VI. The Flying Island of Laputa
VII. Captain Gulliver and ‘The Adventure’
VIII. Land of the Houyhnhms and Yahoos
IX. The Voyage Home
Gulliver’s Travels was written as my Master’s Thesis project when I was at Louisiana State University. It was a large project that took me several months to complete. The work is inspired and loosely-based on the Jonathan Swift 1726 novel of the same name (although it was originally published anonymously as “Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World“) which has always fascinated me, along with Swift’s story lending itself to the reader envisioning strong visual scenes that I thought could be interesting to portray musically. The work is in nine movements – many of them fairly short in duration.
In the story of Gulliver’s Travel, the main character, Lemuel Gulliver finds himself travelling by boat to several destinations. I thought it would be really interesting to first create a main musical theme (“Gulliver’s Theme” as I call it) that represents the character throughout the work – and changing as the character’s mood develops as the story progresses. In the first movement, The Voyage to Lilliput (Gulliver’s Theme) this main melody is clearly presented to the listener. The second consideration for this work was the way in which I organized the movements. In a similar manner as Mussorgsky’s famous composition, Pictures at an Exhibition (where the listener is suppose to be moving from picture to picture in a museum – each picture a separate musical movement – and when they move from one picture to another, there is a short movement of music that acts as a transition to the next picture), this work is also structured in that way. In other words, Lemuel Gulliver travels to a total of four different destinations – which creates four distinct movements of music. Other movements are added to this design so that his “traveling” to each destination is a transition movement of music (with each transition movement being a thematic and musical character variation of “Gulliver’s Theme”). So for every place he travels to, there is a short separate movement (a voyage) that brings us there – along with a final movement to close out the work. This structure and form can be seen in the listing of the movements.
I. The Voyage to Lilliput (Gulliver’s Theme)
Preceeded by the first movement, The Voyage to Lilliput (Gulliver’s Theme), the second movement, Land of the Lilliputians, depicts Gulliver’s first adventure as the only survivor of a shipwreck who swims to the land of Lilliput, where he passes out and is tied up by people who are less than 6 inches tall. He is then taken to the capital city and eventually released. Gulliver is asked to help defend Lilliput against the empire of Blefuscu, with which Lilliput is at war over which end of an egg should be broken – being a matter of religious doctrine. Gulliver agrees and captures Blefuscu’s naval fleet, thus preventing an invasion, but declines to assist the emperor of Lilliput in conquering Blefuscu. Later Gulliver extinguishes a fire in the royal palace by urinating on it. Eventually he falls out of favour and is sentenced to be blinded and starved, so he escapes to Blefuscu, where he finds a normal-size boat and is thus able to return to his home in England. The music heard (using rapid tempos and quick short gestures, along with a muted brass fanfare representing the small Lilliput King’s royal power) is designed to portray the tiny citizens of Lilliput against the large-scale Gulliver.
II. Land of the Lilliputians
The third movement, The Voyage to Brobdingnag, represents Gulliver’s voyage to his next destination, Brobdingnag, a land that is inhabited by a race of giants – represented by the movement, Gildrig and the Land of the Giants.
III. The Voyage to Brobdingnag
Arriving at Brobdingnag, a farm worker finds Gulliver and delivers him to the farm owner. The farmer begins exhibiting Gulliver for money, and the farmer’s young daughter, Glumdalclitch, takes care of him. He soon becomes known to everyone as “Gildrig,” and one day the queen orders the farmer to bring Gulliver to her, and she purchases him as a pet. He becomes a favorite at royal Brobdingnag court, though the king reacts with contempt when Gulliver recounts the splendid achievements of his own civilization. The king responds to Gulliver’s description of the government and history of England by concluding that the English must be a race of “odious vermin.” Gulliver offers to make gunpowder and cannon for the king, but the king is horrified by the thought of such weaponry. Eventually Gulliver is picked up by an eagle and then rescued at sea by people of his own size. Like the second movement, the music is designed to depict the giants in Brobdingnag with heavy low registered gestures, a very loud and large brass fanfare, all surrounding lighter melodies that represent the small scale of Gulliver in this land.
IV. Gildrig and the Land of the Giants
Following the fourth movement, The Voyage to Laputa, Gulliver is set adrift by pirates and eventually ends up on the flying island of Laputa. This is where the fifth movement, The Flying Island of Laputa, takes place. The people of Laputa all have one eye pointing inward and the other upward, and they are so lost in thought that they must be reminded to pay attention to the world around them. Though they are greatly concerned with mathematics and with music, they have no practical applications for their learning. Laputa is also the home of the king of Balnibarbri, which is the continent below the flying island. Gulliver is permitted to leave the island and visit several land-bound cities, and while doing so he meets many obsessive scientists, a magician who allows him to speak to the ghosts of important figures in history, and an immortal race in Luggnagg who are extremely unhappy. From Luggnagg he is able to sail to Japan and then return back to England. This movement utilizes repetition in a very minimalist way to achieve the image of a floating island in the sky. Lots of instrument colors are used to also depict the surreal image of this flying island.
V. The Voyage to Laputa / VI. The Flying Island of Laputa
Despite his intention of remaining at home after Laputa, Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a merchantman ship, “The Adventure,” as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage, he is forced to find new additions to his crew who, he believes, have turned against him. His crew then commits mutiny. After keeping him contained for some time, they resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across, and continue as pirates. This voyage is represented by the seventh movement, Captain Gulliver and The Adventure, and once again presents “Gulliver’s Theme” (except this time the music is disillusioned as Gulliver is doubting his faith in humanity).
VII. Captain Gulliver and ‘The Adventure’
The eighth movement, Land of the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos, Gulliver is abandoned in a landing boat and comes upon a race of deformed savage humanoid creatures, known as Yahoos, who he perceives to not like him. Shortly afterwards, he meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses who are the rulers of the Yahoos. Gulliver finds that the Houyhnhnms are cleaner and more rational, communal, and benevolent than the brutish, filthy, greedy, and degenerate Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are very curious about Gulliver, who seems to be a Yahoo, and civilized, but, after Gulliver describes his country and its history to the master Houyhnhnm, the Houyhnhnm concludes that the people of England are not more reasonable than the Yahoos. At last it is decided that Gulliver must leave the Houyhnhnms, thus Gulliver then returns to England, so disgusted with humanity that he avoids his family and buys horses and converses with them instead. While the eight movement relys on a very repetitive and heavy rhythmic pattern in the low instruments, it also exposes a duality of musical character as there are fleeting moments of blissful musical gestures and chord progressions.
Although Gulliver is disillusioned by humanity, the final movement, The Voyage Home, not only gives closure to the entire work (by bringing back again Gulliver’s Theme in a more positive manner), but it depicts Gulliver’s acceptance and content position in life of being alone, alienating his family, and spending the rest of his days talking with his horses.
VIII. Land of the Houyhnhms and Yahoos / IX. The Voyage Home
Below is the audio of all nine movements combined together as it is intended by the composer, and as it would be presented in a concert setting.