Composer Dr. Nolan Stolz, Professor of Music at University of South Carolina Upstate, stopped by Texas Ivy, on Sixth Street, for a short visit July 13, to talk about his hour-long piece for symphony orchestras inspired by Route 66 which coincides with the historic highway’s centennial in 2026.
With Route 66 turning 100 on Nov. 11, three orchestras along Route 66 will premiere the suite this fall with one in Arizona and two in Oklahoma, according to Stolz.
The adventurous professor has traveled Route 66 four different times in four different seasons to capture the feeling and ambiance of the magic that has endured for 100 years on the road that connected America and now seems to be connecting the world.
“I intended to write a piece maybe about 25 minutes,” Stolz said, “but once I got on the road, I realized that there was a lot more to Route 66, historically speaking, so it grew to eight movements which is about an hour long.”
Stolz said he completed the piece last year, with some revisions, but it is now ready to perform.
“So, this fall when Route 66 turns 100, there will be three orchestras along Route 66 that will perform the suite – one in Flagstaff, one in Oklahoma City and one in Tulsa,” he said. Stolz said he was still looking for other orchestras to perform his work and has contacted several including the Amarillo Symphony.
He said that the Amarillo Symphony conductor, George Jackson, reached out to him through Instagram and expressed his interest.
Stolz said he learned early on that he needed to focus on gathering inspiration, getting ideas, learning about the road, rather than trying to compose each night he traveled. “I travel with a portable keyboard I can plug directly into my laptop,” he said.
“I just found after a day’s travel, I was just so tired I didn’t really have the energy to do that, so instead what I did was document the scenes with pictures, video and in some cases audio,” Stolz said.
The talented musician said that he would compose primarily when he returned home using those photographs, videos and audios for reference.
Inspiration from Amarillo National Bank sign
“In a similar way, a painter might use a photograph as a reference when painting, I would have those readily available to remind me of the mood or just if it was a video of the particular rhythm, like for instance, the Amarillo National Bank sign, which spells out Amarillo vertically in a particular rhythm, if you watch it,” he said.
“It’s very consistent,” Stolz explained. “So, I just looked at the video and kind of composed, like one instrument comes in as if each one represented a different letter from Amarillo.”
Stolz said he went into it with an open mind and didn’t want to have any preconceived ideas … “in other words, I didn’t want to write music that was simply named after Route 66.”
‘Vacancy/No Vacancy’ draws positive/negative vibes in music:
There’s a movement titled “Vacancy/No Vacancy,” and the idea is that as a traveler, you see vacancy and you’re happy because you can stay there, but as you get to know the operators and owner of various hotels and motels, especially in the off season, you may be the only person staying there and you feel bad,” Stoltz reasoned.
“But on the flip side, you see no vacancy and you’re disappointed because you can’t stay there.”
Stolz said the whole movement reflects both sides and perspectives simultaneously, so that it has a sweet quality to the music.
Stolz said that at some orchestra concerts there is a physical or digital program where composers are asked to provide program notes which gives them an opportunity to explain to the audience what they are hearing and what inspired it.
‘Neon Dreams’ – bright music evolves
His favorite piece of the suite is “Neon Dreams,” which Stolz said he represented as very bright orchestral colors such as a flute, high violins, oboe, instruments that have a very bright, think sound and harmonies that could be described as bright.
“Those are about as opposite from sad and dark as you can go, really on the other side of the spectrum,” he said. “I have these long, sustained tones that are very bright in timbre, color and sound in harmony. Then for the animated signs, I’ll get rhythms from the signs.”
Stolz said in several moments in the piece, he imagined street scenes with several neon signs flashing at different times.
‘Among the Trees’ evokes scenes of Alanreed gas station
There is another movement titled Among the Trees – and the titles of each of them are evocative and visual, according to Stolz. He said there is one about the old gas station in Alanreed that has collapsed.
“But, there’s a tree growing right through the canopy, so it’s nature reclaiming its space, and that movement has several melodies, stacking one upon the other, very claustrophobic, as if there was an object such as a building or gas station sort of hiding among the trees,” he said.
’26 Gas Stations’ honored Edgar Shae’s photography in music
Stolz also mentioned another movement called “26 Gas Stations.” Which is a homage to Ed Ruscha’s photography memoir of 26 Gas Stations.
“So, there are some sad moments,” he said. “I’m think of like the road itself, where a lot of times, it just ends up going into a dead end but the road continues into what is now a forest.”
Stolz said he sends conductors the sheet music and a few demo recordings created from a computer and they can just look at it and know what it sounds like.
One of the movements is currently on YouTube, Stolz said. “We did a preview performance last year of “26 Gas Stations,” so that is on YouTube.
The talented musician said that he has also added many of his pictures and videos to social media to see if they are interested in seeing what inspired the music.
The entire suite is broken into eight separate segments so that it can be performed separately or altogether. “For instance, the Tulsa Symphony is going to do some of the movements but not the whole thing.”
Lincoln Highway begins project
Stolz said the project started when he wanted to compose a piece of music for symphony orchestra that represented American and thought about writing a Route 66-related piece, which started with a 25-minute movement about the Lincoln Highway, which stretches from San Franciso to New York in which he was able to represent the whole large geographic area.
“Each of the five movements represents a different region that Lincoln Park goes through,” he said. Stolz further explained that the movements could be reversed and still make sense, since travels from one area to another.
Ghost Town of Jericho inspires artist with sound of tin roof
To capture the ambiance of the area around Texas, Stolz said he spent the night at the ghost town of Jericho where the owners allowed him to camp.
“I found when the wind blew, the tin on the roof at the old motel, dating back to the early 30s or early 20s, would bang and bump itself and also scrape,” he said. So he used one of the percussionists to take two thin pieces of metal, such as tin and rub them together to evoke the sound of the motel in the ghost town.
Final movement about old movie theaters – ‘the Show will go On’
In his searches, he discovered that Groom, Texas, had three different movie theaters in the 20s, which he found in some of the Groom News from the past. He also discovered a silent movie theater and a Blue Bird Theater in various towns, which inspired his final movement, “the Show Will Go On,” about all theaters from 1926.
Stolz said the movement also runs through to the new multiplex theaters popular now. “It starts with music that sounds like an old theater organ, much different from a church, designed to mimic an orchestra.
“Some of the small towns only had a piano or very modest organ,” he said.
But, the opening part of the music will evoke the sound of the theater organ, like an orchestra filtered through a theater organ with woodwinds and strains to play vibrato as if it’s a theater organ.
AD 1926 brings back Charleston rhythm with train sounds
“The opening movement which is titled ‘AD 1926’ contains sounds of the Charleston rhythm and trains, which are a part of Route 66,” according to Stolz. He captured the sound of a train passing with bass drums rolling which you can feel as well as hear, along with the train horn which you hear when coming to a railroad crossing.
“Then is goes into the Golden Age of Hollywood, which involves a particular sound of the orchestra. Eventually it travels into the Drive-In era up to the multiplex,” he said.
The Route 66 Suite consists of eight movements, each about five to twelve minutes in duration and each inspired by a different aspect of Route 66. The suite opens with “A.D. 1926,” a reflection of music and places from the year Route 66 became an official U.S. highway. Other movements have evocative titles such as “Neon Dreams,” “Desert 66,” “Among the Trees,” “66 Ghost Towns,” “26 Gas Stations,” and “Vacancy / No Vacancy.” The suite closes with “The Show Will Go On,” featuring music inspired by theaters along Route 66 built from before 1926 to present day.
Stolz describes his Route 66 Suite as “a musical reflection of the historic highway,” representing various aspects of the road that he found inspiring. The work’s subtitle is “Music for the NEXT 100 years of Route 66.”
He said that from 2021–25, he spent time in every town along Route 66, getting to know the community, including its business owners, residents, and historical buildings.
Through dozens of TV, radio, and newspaper interviews in 2022, Stolz made nationwide news three times while on his epic 400-day road trip, during which he drove Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. and back eight times, getting inspiration for the music. He returned to Route 66 in 2023 for two additional road trips and then began composing the music, completing the suite in 2026 after two additional Route 66 trips in 2025.
Stolz’s Route 66 Suite is an official piece of music for Route 66’s centennial, recognized by the presidentially-appointed and Congress-approved Route 66 Centennial Commission, with which communities can incorporate the arts into their centennial celebrations. The official Route 66 Suite webpage, www.nolanstolz.com/route-66-suite, Facebook page www.facebook.com/route66suite , and Instagram account www.instragram/route66suite are designed for conductors and staff of symphony orchestras. However, a Patreon page for the project at www.patreon.com/route66suite is intended for the general public, especially for Route 66 enthusiasts.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Route 66 gets a symphony for its 100th birthday
Reporting by Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nell Williams, Amarillo Globe-News | USA TODAY Network
