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| Three Western Reserve Pieces | |
| Date Completed: | October 8, 1988 |
| Duration: | about 12 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | organ |
| First Performance: | February 6, 1990 by Richard Shirey in Guzzetta Recital Hall, University of Akron, Ohio |
| Comments: | to and for Richard Shirey |
| Program Notes: | The Three Western Reserve Pieces for organ were written at the request of Richard Shirey, a gifted musician and long-time friend. Composed in Autumn, 1988, the three pieces are quite a mix of styles and intentions. I. Prelude and Brief Variations is a very compressed and strict twelve-tone work and II. Flight is a very short toccata. By the time I came to write the third piece, Ricercar, I felt compelled by personal circumstances to write for the general, non-specialist listener, and perhaps also with the idea that it might be used for church service or private meditation - which it has. I called this sturdier and more harmonically directed way of composing my Western Reserve style. |