For Dappled Things

Program Notes

The first time I ever read a poem in the Greek Alcaics form, I was immediately struck by its beauty, and a plaintive melody sprung into my mind.  This was the genesis of For Dappled Things, which derives all its material from the opening violin solo, based upon the stressed and unstressed patterns of the Alcaics form.  As I shaped the composition around this material, with its lilting rhythms, disjunct leaps, and pungent dissonances, I constantly had to resist the urge to “correct” the moments in the score that seemed odd or off-kilter, and to allow its irregular beauty to shine through.  It seemed fitting to me, then, to take the title of the piece from the opening line of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Pied Beauty, which extols the wonders of “all things counter, original, spare, strange.”

Media

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Performances

3/9/19 - Jacob Frost Master's Recital, Pitman Recital Hall, University of Oklahoma
4/7/18 - Composing Tomorrow, Pitman Recital Hall, University of Oklahoma