Nova Vista Symphony commissioned Symphony No. 2 and gave it its first performance in April, 2026.
Program Note
At the beginning of Symphony No. 2, something bad happens, and the rest of the piece is a response to that. The first movement, Consequence, depicts that event and the immediate dazed aftermath, followed by a valiant fight against it. The slow second movement, Hudson Valley, Spring 1981, looks back on simpler days. Its title is a reference to the area of New York State where I grew up, and the last time that I lived with my family. The feelings of that time are still fresh even decades later, and that place and time feel like they are just waiting for me to return, but as Thomas Wolfe famously wrote, “You can’t go home again.” Dim Sum is the name of a traditional style of Chinese lunch that includes a large variety of dumplings, buns, and small plates. I had for years assumed that dim sum was all about the food, and I even wrote a piece of chamber music celebrating this, but it eventually occurred to me that going out for dim sum is actually more about the conversation that happens while you eat. In this movement, I imagine a group of people gathered around a large, round table discussing, holding forth upon, even joking about what has happened. In the final movement, we look forward to a time when we have recovered, things have been put right, and we are ready to move onward, not unlike when we reach the End Titles of a movie, the final segment of a film where the production credits roll, accompanied by musical themes from throughout the film.
What consequential event opens the piece? Take your pick – pandemic, natural disaster, war, an election, or something more specific – we are living in interesting times. I was chagrined to realize several weeks into composing that the rhythm that opens the symphony and represents the arrival of this event also figures prominently in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. After a brief panic, I reassured myself that Beethoven didn’t own the patent on that rhythm, and that I was doing something different with it. Later, I read about Egmont, the Goethe play for which Beethoven wrote his overture, about a count who dares to protest against the tyranny of a cruel king, and the triumph of the human spirit against oppression, and I realized that this potential connection with my own desired themes could make my use of the rhythm a true homage, even if accidental.