Movements: in one movement
World Premiere: Commissioned and premiered by the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conductor, on July 2, 2011.
Program Notes:
Elegy was written for the Eastern Music Festival to mark their 50th anniversary season. The musical material for the piece comes from a section of my first String Quartet, which I subsequently arranged for string quintet. After many revisions and reworking, I set the work for full string orchestra, which I had always wanted to do, but never had the opportunity until Maestro Schwarz’s request for this piece came along.
This short work begins with a slow, lyrical chorale in the strings, emerging from nothing. The use of many open strings and double-stops (playing on two adjacent strings simultaneously) gives it a characteristic sound. The middle section makes use of high harmonics, accompanying a high, angelic cello melody, played by a solo cello in the upper most register of the instrument. After building to a resonant thematic statement, the lyrical chorale eventually dissolves back into the silence.
-- Pierre Jalbert
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Elegy on Amazon.