• Duration: 8'
• Instrumentation: 3[1.2.3/Picc] 3 3[1.2.3/BCl] 3[1.2.3/CBsn] — 4 3 3 1 — Timp 6Perc Harp — Strings
• Year: 2000
• Order: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Type: parts, score

''The Inverted Mountain'' for orchestra is a musical journey through scales and intervals. All these various intervals and scales are like the languages of the world: they are different in character, distinctive, and easily recognisable. As the title suggests, it is also a journey to the peak of a mountain. Vibrant, colourful texture and dynamic structure full of energy and vitality is present throughout the music. Rhythm is an important factor of the work. Often we will hear intriguing combinations of juxtapositions of rhythms based on different meters found in the music of the African continent. These polyrhythmic and polymetric configurations are audible not only in the percussion section of the work, but also throughout different sections of the orchestra. During our musical journey we will find the echoes of bold and energetic folk music from the Tatra Mountains and perhaps the most popular trumpet call or heynal from Cracow Poland. The outline of our journey through the intervals and scales is given here with musical examples. In short, the piece starts and ends on the minor third e-g/g-e. As we progress to the peak of the work, we gradually encounter different regions of harmonic development based on systematically chosen intervals: perfect fourths, fifths, then sixths and finally sevenths. The interval of the seventh, presented in a structure of harsh chords, brings a climax to the whole piece. When reaching the peak, a very unified but fast and steady motion, also called ''rhythmic unison'', takes over the whole orchestra. Suddenly the music material turns upside-down, or in other words, is inverted, so that the first motive with the minor third based on the pentatonic scale shows up in the climatic moment of the work or simply on ''top of the mountain''. This theme is presented within a huge orchestra tutti, where all instruments play their motives, but without a common pulsation. The musical effect is equivalent to that of different countries talking in different languages at the same time. Towards the descent or towards the end of the piece, the energetic motives of the mountain folk music reoccur, followed by the trumpet's call, this time resembling more fully the original version of the call. The initial motive (theme) of the minor third in downward motion ends our musical journey.Needless to say, the music is full of twinkling and vibrant orchestral colours, which are continuously changing as in kaleidoscope. The whole percussion section is rich in many unusual instruments, popular in the countries around the world, but not much used in the classical orchestra. These original instruments are boobams, slit drums, congas, Thailand gongs, Indian Sarna bells, Almglocken, Turkish crescents, and many others. Marta Ptaszyńska