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We Tear Down Our Coliseums (live at Elmhurst College)

by Heisenberg Uncertainty Players

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1.
Royals 05:09
2.
Plasma 07:52
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
V. Kingdome 06:17
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

about

In a way, the idea for this piece is the confluence of two of my greatest life-long passions: music and baseball. Baseball played a significant role in my upbringing (my dad brags that the first sentence I ever spoke was “The Mets are pond scum.”), particularly in the form of a road trip I embarked upon with my dad, brother, and uncle in the summer of 1996. For two weeks, we lived out of our van and saw games in 10 different stadiums. Not only did this reinforce my admiration for the game, it piqued my interest in the grandeur, nuance, and often history that went into the architecture of each stadium.

However, this piece is not just a love letter to baseball stadiums: it is a reflection on their increasingly disposable nature and what that says about society. The title of the piece comes from a quote by an unknown source, and though I don’t remember who said it, its poignancy has stuck with me for years. We create these overwhelming, expensive structures and then convince ourselves that they need to be torn down and rebuilt every twenty years or so. Not only is this incredibly wasteful, it deprives future generations of lasting cultural legacies. Stadiums are not only intended to hold games and fans; they also absorb the events, memories, and history that unfolded within them. And we are destroying that.

Each of the nine movements in this piece depicts a different stadium that has been demolished. There are certain themes and motives that unite several movements as well as specific allusions to baseball (for example, the number “9” is central to several movements), but the music for each movement was crafted specifically to embody its corresponding stadium.

This album is a live recording of the debut performance of We Tear Down Our Coliseums on April 1, 2017 at Elmhurst College's Mill Theater, and it includes other pieces performed at the concert.

credits

released April 10, 2017

Music written by John Dorhauer
Paintings by Adam Dorhauer
Performance by Heisenberg Uncertainty Players

Natalie Lande: soprano saxophone
Kelley Dorhauer: alto saxophone
Dan Burke: tenor saxophone
Matt Beck: tenor saxophone, flute
James Baum: baritone saxophone
Tom Klein: trumpet
Ryan Adamsons: trumpet
Henry Smith: trumpet
Brendan Donnelly: trumpet
Michael Nearpass: trombone
Josh Torrey: trombone
Chris Shuttleworth: trombone
Steve Duncan: bass trombone
Chris Parsons: guitar
Evan Swanson: piano, keyboard
Dan Parker: bass
Jon Wenzel: drums

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Heisenberg Uncertainty Players Chicago, Illinois

Heisenberg Uncertainty Players (HUP) “are something of a Chicago institution, as well as being a distinct anomaly – a 17- piece big band specialising in original compositions and arrangements by the band members, who have managed to survive and thrive since 2011 playing regular shows around their home town.” (Jazz Views) ... more

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