Program Notes
An aubade is a poem or musical piece that evokes daybreak, but often takes the form of a dialogue between two lovers that are separating at dawn and their final words. An isthmus, on the other hand, is a narrow strip of land that separates two bodies of water. When composing "An Isthmus Aubade," I imagined the sun rising over one body of water and setting over another. In this way, the two bodies of water share the same light, which could be symbolic of two lovers who still love one another, even though they are separated. The piece is also a love song to the geographic beauty of Madison, Wisconsin, where I wrote the piece for its premiere with the UW-Madison Wind Ensemble, directed by Scott Teeple. As the sun passes over this city day by day, its course hears the first birdsong and sees the sparkling shores of Lake Monona, continues on to hear the myriad conversations of students and professors, the hushed halls of the legislature (and the protests outside!), and finally the cool breezes on Memorial Terrace and sun-kissed waters of a Lake Mendota sunset. All of these people coming and going, saying goodbye to one another, and still beneath all this bustling activity is the ancient foundation of limestone, of glacial deposits, of marshes and woods teeming with life, of two lakes that day after day sit side-by-side, so interconnected, yet distinct, wondering what the future may hold.
Full Score
An aubade is a poem or musical piece that evokes daybreak, but often takes the form of a dialogue between two lovers that are separating at dawn and their final words. An isthmus, on the other hand, is a narrow strip of land that separates two bodies of water. When composing "An Isthmus Aubade," I imagined the sun rising over one body of water and setting over another. In this way, the two bodies of water share the same light, which could be symbolic of two lovers who still love one another, even though they are separated. The piece is also a love song to the geographic beauty of Madison, Wisconsin, where I wrote the piece for its premiere with the UW-Madison Wind Ensemble, directed by Scott Teeple. As the sun passes over this city day by day, its course hears the first birdsong and sees the sparkling shores of Lake Monona, continues on to hear the myriad conversations of students and professors, the hushed halls of the legislature (and the protests outside!), and finally the cool breezes on Memorial Terrace and sun-kissed waters of a Lake Mendota sunset. All of these people coming and going, saying goodbye to one another, and still beneath all this bustling activity is the ancient foundation of limestone, of glacial deposits, of marshes and woods teeming with life, of two lakes that day after day sit side-by-side, so interconnected, yet distinct, wondering what the future may hold.
Full Score