...INTO THE BLUE (2016)

This work is part of my National Park Series.

Celebrating the history of the Cornish Colony and the work of its central figure, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, …into the blue attempts to capture elements of the landscape, artwork, and friendships that are memorialized at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site. The three main sections of the piece are connected by cello solos and performed as one continuous movement. The first section (“between the daylight and your dreams”) depicts the pastoral surroundings that drew the colony members to the area, while the second section (“imagined and immortal forms”) focuses specifically on some of Saint-Gaudens most celebrated monuments (the Shaw, Sherman, and Adams memorials). The final portion (“playful badinage”) captures the pomp and whimsy of the “Masque of Ours” which the community produced together for their ‘patron' in 1905. The titles of the interior sections are all drawn from the prologue to that masque.

This piece was commissioned by the Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial and written in May and June of 2016. Special thanks to Fern Meyers and the park employees at Saint Gaudens National Historic Site.

Premiered on August 21, 2016 by the Arianna Quartet in the Little Studio at Saint Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, New Hampshire.