The Heavenly Hazel Tree (2016)
Instrumentation: Violin, piano.
Description: This piece is cast in a ternary form, based on the slow movement of a Classical sonata template. It includes ethereal birds in the violin part I notated while sketching on a walk (beginning of May), and a second B theme also saved from my initial sketches. The violin goes up quite high, and the whole-tone scale is employed at various points. It’s a very delicate little piece that was a struggle to write, as I didn’t really like the direction it was going for a while. Playing through the violin part and hearing my two colleagues at Augustana play through it really helped me appreciate it even more.
I'd like to thank Brian Hinkley and Dortha DeWit for performing this piece in the recording below.