Dr. Bruce Polay has been music director of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony since 1983, and is a professor of music at Knox College where he teaches courses in music theory and music history. During his tenure, Bruce has been selected Illinois Conductor of the Year and the Knox-Galesburg Symphony has twice been the recipient of the coveted Illinois Orchestra of the Year award, most recently for the 1998-99 season. His recent appearances as guest conductor have included performances in Romania, Ukraine, Russia and in the U.S., all resulting in requests for re-engagements. Bruce's recognition as a composer has been enhanced through ASCAP’s Rudolf Nissim Composition Competition for his award-winning Tranquil Cycle for Tenor Voice and Orchestra (1992), and with ASCAP Standards Awards each year since 1993. His Y’Urning Cycle for Soprano, Clarinet, and Piano (1998) and Cathedral Images have been released on compact disc. Bruce's recently completed commissions include an entire evening of music for the 2000 Sandburg Festival. As a piano recitalist and chamber musician, he has performed all over the world and serves on competition juries.
Cathedral Images is inspired by a painting by Frederick Ortner, a colleague of the composer’s at Knox. The piece is set in a succession of scenes, each of which captures in music an era from the cathedral’s long history. The musical style progresses from plainchant to diffuse, "futuristic" sounds, representing (in the composer’s words) the "layered architecture of many building campaigns … at once medieval, renaissance, impressionistic, and contemporary." Rather than link the sections with traditional musical transitions, however, Polay employs sonic "curtains" that mask the end of one scene while gradually allowing the next to emerge. Conventional thematic development is still in evidence, particularly when the opening chant returns at the climax of the work, in bold parallel chords set against a yearning lyrical line in the woodwinds. However, the progress of the piece is primarily achieved not through such standard techniques, but through the sense of chronology conveyed by the succession of musical "snapshots." The sense of time passing is metaphorically represented on another level, by a chime player circling the hall, who marks the 24 hours of the day independently of what is taking place in the orchestra. Anyone who has been inside a centuries-old building can easily relate to this enchanting piece: the walls are at once historical artifacts and diaries of the ages, and each individual feature, blemish, or restoration has unlimited stories to tell.