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Walsh Sonata
Date Completed:April 14, 1980
Duration:about 10 and a half minutes
Instrumentation:violin
First Performance:May 8, 1980 by the composer at the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Comments:to Timothy Drew Walsh
Program Notes: Walsh Sonata was written between 17 March and 14 April 1980 in Setauket,Long Island and New York City. I gave the first performance at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, 8 May 1980 during my Master's Degree recital. It is the first of what turned out to be a long list of works inspired by and inscribed to Timothy Drew Walsh.
As the original program matter-of-factly states,

The name Walsh is a martian word that is often
taken to mean: "the illusion of intense
luminosity experienced in landscapes seen at night"

and also that

the movement titles are taken from Luminist
paintings...shown to me by Nigel Black.

Tim was extremely shy and did not like to see his name in print, and so Nigel, his alter ego, was invoked on all public occasions...this explains as well the "definition."

As was my practice for many years, I have embedded a brief quote from another composer unconnected in anybody's mind to my work - in this case Giuseppe Verdi: his setting during a touching moment of farewell of the words "Siate felice."

RZ