FIELDS OF GOLD

Gratefully commissioned by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Department of Humanities and Arts in honor of Professor Douglas Weeks for his distinguished career of tireless dedication to music education as a mentor, colleague, and friend.

 

Professor Weeks' commitment to his students guided them to great musical heights and truly embodied WPI's motto of Lehr und Kunst (Theory and Practice).

DEDICATED TO ALL THE MENTORS WHO STOICLY CHANGE OUR WORLD FOR THE BETTER

Program Notes

 

The story of an alien child sent to Earth, the last survivor of a doomed planet and civilization, it is a story that has been capturing the imaginations of Earthlings since it's first publishing in Actions Comics #1, June, 1938. Raised by farmers with love, taught to be fair, humble, hard working and to never tell a lie, the child grows into the son they could never have and the superhero everyone can admire. Jonathan and Martha Kent weren't just his parents. They were his mentors, like real mentors the world over, silently contributing to the world in a remarkable, Earth defining way.

 

Fields of Gold tells the early story of Superman. The piece starts out with a child's journey from Krypton to Earth. Then we meet the Kents and rural America. Then 2 times, events happen in his young life when Superman uses his powers for good and comes to terms with who he is, who he is to become. There are scenes from Superman movies that always strike home with me; when Superman is standing alone, surrounded by fields of gold as a farmer, a son and an honest man of qualityand just worth. That is how I will always think of him, how I will always think of Superman.