On the Way (piano trio)

On the Way was composed, mostly, in late 2023, another period of transition in my life: leaving places I had known for the last dozen years, getting oriented to a new home somewhat near to where I had lived long ago, seeing once again places I had known but which were now different.

The movements:
I. From Fragments (00:00)
II. Lament (06:16)
III. Begin Anew (11:22)

A few words about the work:

I. From Fragments - A putting together of a dozen fragmentary musical ideas - motives, as they are called. These arose from brief thoughts that popped into my head one night. I memorized them and, early the next morning, I got up and scribbled them down; these “notes-to-self” became the rhythmic ideas that propel the movement. They are: “I want to be heard. Here I am. This is what I do. Put it on the paper. From fragments, a whole. Sit, something will come. Now. Put it together. In the dark it comes. Underneath it all the river flows. My harmony. What is in me.”

II. Lament - This movement is very simply a lament over the brutality of ongoing wars and the suffering they bring to the innocent: the loss of life, of loved ones, of home, of a future. Will there ever come a time when humankind will cease its inhuman behavior?

III. Begin Anew - The final movement was actually begun in September, 2021. It took awhile for me to know what to do with the lyrical primary theme, beginning in unison and using a pentatonic mode, something that I had never before used in my instrumental works. A more dissonant, driven conversation emerges but we return to the hopeful first theme, beginning anew.

The first performance was given in June, 2024 by di.vi.sion piano trio: Kurt Briggs (violin), Matthew Goeke (cello) and Renée Cometa Briggs (piano). Many thanks to the trio for their interest in my work, and a special shout-out to Kurt Briggs, who recorded and produced this video.