Porch Music
for violin, cello, and percussion (2007)
(duration ca. 25 minutes)
Performers may chose to play whole movement excerpts of the full score. Aside from Before Dawn (and maybe Morning in Appalachia), the individual movements will stand on their own. Probably any 3 movements would work fine as a suite.
in six movements
I. Before Dawn
II. Morning in Appalachia
III.Playing Outdoors
IV. Dark Clouds Over the Coalfields
V. Saturday Night
VI. Lullaby
program note:
The inspiration for Porch Music came to me during the summer of 2006 when storms damaged the electric line at our house and we endured weeks of nearly constant power outages. Unable to get much work done on my computer, I found myself daydreaming and time-traveling back to my childhood days, long before computers and air conditioning were ubiquitous. But then the brakes on my time machine failed and my daydreams careened even further back to a time I know only from reading and listening to the stories of folks much older then myself — a time when electricity and plumbing were scarce; when most Appalachian workers’ days were filled with strenuous physical labor in fields, forests, factories, and coal mines; when Saturday was just another day for hard work and weekends didn’t begin until Saturday night; when porches provided a necessary escape from the heat on a summer evening and a place for informal social gatherings; a time when almost everything was homemade, including music and other entertainments.
Links:
(41 pages; formatted for 8.5 x 11 page size)
Recording available on iTunes:
Sticks and Stones (on Equilibrium Recordings) with performers Majorie Bagley (violin), Roger Braun (percussion), Michael Carrera (cello)
Click on “contact” below to inquire about parts
