All six composer fellows from the Soundstreams Emerging Composers Workshop (now called RBC Bridges) with the Rolston String Quartet after the final performance.
About an Elegy (2019)
Duration 5 Minutes
First Performance Rolston String Quartet, Soundstreams Composers Showcase at Alliance Française (Toronto, ON), February 1, 2019.
About the Work About an Elegy is unique to my portfolio in that I revised and rewrote the short piece over the course of a few years, between 2016 and 2019. In 2017, I finished a short movement called “Elegy” that was in-part inspired by W.S. Merwin’s poem by the same name that is one line, in its entirety, “Who would I show it to.” At that time, I was not only search for a raw, simplicity in my writing, but I was also working to answer the question of “who is my art for” — an idea addressed (darkly) by Merwin’s small poem. In 2019, I was selected to participate in the Soundstreams Emerging Composer program, during which all selected composers workshopped a new work with the Rolston String Quartet. I decided to revisit the short movement from 2017, using my retrospective relationship with the piece to tie my original ideas together with more precision and clarity.
The resulting piece is a tapestry of folk-like melodies that weave in-and-out of each section, coming back in bits and pieces that collide with one another. The movement culminates in soft, waltz-like section that introduces the complete form of the original melody, with the melody rising and falling against a transparent, energetic drone.