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| Verging Lightfall | |
| Date Completed: | March 24, 1992 |
| Duration: | 15 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | violin and piano |
| First Performance: | March 30, 1992 roger Zahab, violin and Eric Moe, piano Pittsburgh Pennsylvania |
| Comments: | Recorded by the composer and Eric Moe on Koch International Classics - see the Recordings page |
| Program Notes: | Verging Lightfall was composed between 10 January and 24 March, and first performed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 30 March 1992 by myself, violin, and Eric Moe, piano. Each part is inscribed to a cherished friend and artist, and the titles reflect the prismatic nature of the music they name. Libnas ikon: path - portrait in relation to a path of the playwright, director, musician and activist Libby Jacobs. Moetnas frond - Eric Moe, composer and pianist, Etna as volcano, Zeus' forge, a sign that I'm on the right highway to visit Eric in Pittsburgh, fond of him and the palms and ferns of his art. Wintered stars, the slow fire - artist Charles Bowser's work and hearth inspired this meditation during which a motive from Benjamin Britten's setting of Montague Slater's text came to mind: "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades/ where earth moves,/ are drawing up the clouds of human grief/ breathing solemnity in the deep night". As Charlie would say, the music fell on the page complete, and during my search for the name (the most difficult part) yielded this epigraph: Wintered stars, the slow fire consume our talk impartially; the snow-dusted trees reach through radiant night, pulling at the horizon. RZ (1992) |