Serenade No. 4, Walk That Lonesome Valley
February 3, 2012, The Zodiac Trio: Vanessa Mollard, violinist; Kliment Krylovskiy, clarinetist; Riko Higuma, pianist. Lawrence and Alma Berk Hall, Berklee College of Music.
August 19, 2012, Zodiac Trio, Cannongate Kirck Edinburgh. Edinburgh Festival. August 20, 2012, Zodiac Trio, City Hall Recital Hall, Candelriggs, Glasgow, Scotland
This ten-minute work was written for the Boston New Music Project and the French trio, the Zodiac Trio. The fast- slow-fast three-movement structure is based on the old American folk song “Walk that Lonesome Valley” that was popularized by Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. The movement titles, Overtures-Invitation-Chase, allude to the romantic subtext of the serenade.
The music, for the most part, is thoroughly chromatic and is based on my own 116-note atonal melody. In the first and last movements, however, this long melody is interrupted by the music of the folk song creating surprising contrasts and comic effects. The writing of all of the parts is virtuosic and demanding to execute.
More Chamber Music Works
String Quartet no. 4, Epiphany, Opus 196 1
Clearing the Clouds from Our Minds, Opus 157 3
Serenade No. 2 for alto recorder, cello, and harpsichord, Opus 98 11
Poems for Trumpet and Piano, Opus 85 13
Two Encores: 1, Canon; 2, Lament, Opus 78 no. 2 15
Two Encores: 1, Canon; 2, Lament, Opus 78 No. 1 16
String Quartet no. 3 (Homage to Beethoven), Opus 71 18
Harmonium: Eight Poems for Brass Quintet after Wallace Stevens, Opus 48 22
Mahler in Blue Light, Opus 43 23
Four Pieces in Familiar Style, Opus 41 24
What Goes Around Comes Around, Opus 38 26
Concerto for Oboe and Five Instruments, Opus 32 28
The Book of Moonlight, Opus 31 29
“Sleep Song” a children’s piece for violin and piano, Opus 18 31
Fantasia on an Imaginary Hymn, Opus 17 32
String Quartet No. 2, Opus 16 33
String Quartet No. 1, Opus 6 34