Waltz For Our Time
for Orchestra
composed for
violin and piano, August 6—August 23, 2014
orchestrated
October 11—November 7, 2014
Duration: about 7 minutes 20 seconds
Cover image; Russian ball, 1863
for Eric Pritchard
Recording is the version for violin and piano, performed by Eric Pritchard and Greg
McCallum at Duke University in January, 2015. This is the first of the Three Pieces for Violin and Piano, listed on the Music Page under Music for Strings.
video (YouTube) MP3 recording WAV recording (CD quality)
Score,
PDF Cover Parts, PDF (print front & back)
In
the spring of 2014, I had a powerful dream of Neem Karoli Baba, my guru, asking
me to write a piece for “violin and…” However my hearing isn’t very good, and I
didn’t quite hear or remember the rest of the instrumentation! I hadn’t been
able to compose since mid-January and needed something to get out of the funk.
When Eric Pritchard asked me for some violin and piano music to be performed at Duke University in January
2015, I figured that would do the trick. The third of the three short pieces I
wrote was this waltz. I then orchestrated all three pieces, as my catalog is
deficient in short orchestral works—and I have found great difficulty getting
longer compositions performed, and composition prizes usually specify short
durations.
I’ve
always been partial to waltzes and waltz-like music, which can be found throughout
my works from the earliest years. At this point the major challenge is to try
and remember enough of what I’ve already done so as to not repeat too much.
The
instrumentation is standard for a full orchestra (2-2-2-2, 4-2-1-1, timpani and
strings), except that instead of two tenor and one bass trombone, I have just
the bass trombone. The first flute doubles on piccolo.
Accidentals
hold through the measure and not beyond, and do not refer to other octaves.
