Jasper Beach (2018) 10'
For flute, violin, cello, and piano.
Commissioned by and premiered at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, 11/4/18. Self-published (Morningside Press, ASCAP).
Jasper Beach is a pebbly beach in rural Downeast Maine, one of the easternmost and northernmost coastal areas in the United States. Jasper Beach is an unusual place; the ground is comprised of very smooth, very uniform rocks of many different colors. The waves here have an especially alluring strangeness to them. As the ocean pushes and pulls Jasper’s smooth rocks across one another, a tinkling, almost melodious chorus of clinks accompanies each ebb and flow of the ocean. My family recently visited Jasper Beach for the first time on a day that would later deliver us difficult news about the health of a loved one. This music tries to capture some of Jasper Beach’s sense of simple serenity, celebrating the sense of joyful calm it afforded our family. These pages are also, perhaps less intentionally, suffused with just a whisper of wistful melancholy. Ultimately, my hope is that this piece can offer its listener a peaceful space for contemplation, whatever this day might bring.
Listen:
Maine’s Jasper Beach