Two Still Lifes

for soprano, flute, bassoon, percussion, piano, violin, and cello

1976

9 minutes

Poetry: Wallace Stevens

Premiere: Tulane University
New Orleans, Jan 30, 1978

Performed at the 13th Society of Composers Conference
Janet Walp, soprano
University of Miami Contemporary Ensemble
Charles Campbell, Conductor
University of Miami
March 22, 1978

[Not currently available for performance.]

Composer notes: Two Still Lifes is based on two poems of Wallace Stevens. The music is lyrical, chromatic, and highly contrapuntal.

When the work was performed on the opening concert of the Society of Composer’s Conference in Miami, Janet Walp and the Contemporary Ensemble did a fabulous job. The reviewer from the Miami Herald praised the performance and remarked that the work was by a composer who had something to say. But I came away convinced that for me personally the style of this work was a dead end. By the end of the following year I began making a radical change of style.