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| Angelic Consort | |
| Date Completed: | February 27, 2002 |
| Duration: | about 6 minutes |
| Instrumentation: | solo viola 2(picc)22bcl1 2201 perc piano strings (optional broken concertinas) |
| First Performance: | March 20, 2002 by Roger Zahab, viola with the University of Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra, Burkhardt Reiter, conducting in Bellefield Hall Auditorium |
| Program Notes: | Angelic Consort was written to inaugurate the viola (made in Pittsburgh in 1957 by Kschier Bros.) that Sandra Elm (University of Pittsburgh, BA 1966) donated to the University of Pittsburgh Chamber Orchestra in honor of her parents Helen and Paul Elm "so that the gift of music which they gave to her may continue in the hands of others." I have tried to reflect the wonderful spirit of the players by writing what I hope will be interesting, gratifying passages for each and everyone. Above all I wanted to honor the generosity of Sandra Elm as well as our long-standing friendship. The viola melody toward the end, after the descending scales in piano and glockenspiel, is an orchestration of the words from the Shakespeare sonnet that begins When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes : ...Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising from the sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate. Other words after this passage are encoded from the sonnet No longer mourn for me: Oh, if [,] I say, you look upon this verse When I perhaps compounded am with clay, Do not so much as my poor name rehearse, But let your love even with my life decay, Lest the wise world should look into your moan And mock you with me after I am gone. I hope by my interlacing of all these elements to transcend fleeting time, and to honor the love and devotion found in companionable music making. RZ |