Enchantments (2023)
12 minutes
Bassoon and piano
Premiere: October 2023 - University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Commissioned by Ben Roidl-Ward
PROGRAM NOTE
Enchantments is a series of four short “fantasy pieces” for bassoon and piano. The piece is all about metamorphoses: each vignette conjures a fairy tale scene, one that quickly manifests and flowers before just as quickly dissolving. An introductory movement gives way to “Ringed in Light (Ripples),” in which a series of floating, unwinding lines are mirrored between the two instruments. The watery world of this movement is answered by the airy, avian world of “Darting, Diving (Scherzo).” “In Wise Tones (Hymn)” is singing and sustained in character, but it, too, eventually evaporates in a puff of smoke.
Enchantments was composed in summer 2023 for the wonderful bassoonist Ben Roidl-Ward.