You may not know the name Gregory Prechel, but if you catch episodes of "The Simpsons," "Futurama," "The Bold and the Beautiful" and so forth, you've probably heard his music.
Prechel -- pronounced "Preck-el" -- who has a long list of "serious" symphonic compositions to his credit, as well as a career in writing the musical accompaniment for movies and television shows, will have his most recent work premiered by the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night.
It's something of a double showcase for Alaska artists, because it features the talents of local musicians and is inspired by visual art at the Anchorage Museum.
In fact the four movements of "Exposition on the Anchorage Museum" will be complemented in performance by slides of the objects and images that stirred Prechel's creative process.
In an e-mail, Prechel said the idea of involving the Anchorage Museum came from ASO conductor Randall Craig Fleischer. Fleischer contacted the composer last March, Prechel said, concerning a commission from Musica Nova, a group of Anchorage patrons that sponsors new music for the symphony to premiere.
The two had previously taken part in a similar collaboration in conjunction with the Youngstown (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra and the Butler Institute of American Art, which premiered last January.
Over the summer, Prechel came to Anchorage and toured the museum. Walter van Horn, director of collections, took him into the archives to see items not usually on display. Prechel called that back-of-the-scenes tour "a fascinating experience."
"I showed him things but didn't particularly try to steer him," said van Horn. Prechel didn't talk much but "was just absorbing it all. The whole thing about the Native cultures of Alaska was something totally unknown to him, at least that was my impression."
Prechel said he had already started to write down some possible themes before his visit, but he "tossed out almost everything I'd written after experiencing the museum." The work was completed in late October.
While specific art will be projected during the performance timed to the musical elements, "Exposition" is not based so much on individual works as on areas of subject matter with which museum visitors will be familiar.
The first movement, for instance, considers Denali, a favorite of Alaska painters like Sydney Laurence, whose massive "Mt. McKinley from the Rapids of the Tokosheetna River," a long-term loan from Alaska Airlines, is among the museum's crown jewels and the most dominant canvas in the building.
While Prechel was unable to make a trip to the mountain during his summer visit, "I believe I had a view of Mount McKinley as the sun was setting one evening," he said. "It was a spectacular vision off in the distance."
The second movement focuses on wildlife as presented by "old masters" like Fred Machetanz. While many popular paintings and drawings show animals in their natural element, Prechel takes it one step further by including the final destination for millions of Alaska's fish, with contemporary artist Carolyn Reed's colorful "Cannery Life."
For the third movement, Prechel pays tribute to Alaska Native culture as expressed in the museum's vast collection of indigenous items. Van Horn estimated that there are at least 25 slides being used for this movement alone.
Prechel described a sort of timeline in this section. The first part of the movement reflects ancient artifacts at the museum, some dating back thousands of years, and the last takes its cue from living Native artists in the museum's modern art collection.
"After a large musical build-up, then a following diminuendo, I felt that I was being led to a more quiet, introspective place," he said. Jack Abraham's much admired sculpture "Personal Armor," with the artist's face backed by a scaffolding structure, "seemed perfect for that feeling and it also felt right to end the movement progressing to a more contemporary work."
The finale is informed by landscape paintings; again, the museum has no shortage of these. It's like the occupational hazard for painters in the 49th state; abstract artist Karla Freeman echoed the sentiments of many of Alaska's nontraditional artists when she complained about the struggle to work without being distracted by the state's awesome scenery.
The idea of a "tone painting" -- using sound and song to conjure visual imagery -- has a long history in music, from Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" to Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride." Notable compositions related to specific paintings are more rare, but include Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead," Morton Feldman's "Rothko Chapel" and, of course, Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."
Perchel said that his new work "has its main emphasis on melody, but there are impressionistic and texture elements as well."
Coming up with a symphonic work differs from writing for movies or television, he said. "Composing for film is all about servicing the film, period. A lot of film music involves short themes that don't really get developed."
In "Exposition," on the other hand, "My focus was primarily on musical theme development and the overall musical arc."
He doesn't have a hard-and-set process, however. "Sometimes the images inspire melodies first, other times a texture, a brush stroke, a chord progression or a rhythmic idea," he said.
"I try to let ideas flow and see where I end up."
Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.
By MIKE DUNHAM
mdunham@adn.com