DESCRIPTION:
This was a reading session given by our SMU Orchestra.

For you music nerds, it is a calm and meditative piece that features a solo violin ostinato against the orchestra. The style is a hybrid of Minimalism and Neo-Romanticism. Many thanks to Prof. Paul Philips, Jonathan Moore, and the SMU Meadows Student Orchestra.

Inspired by: Henryk Gorecki, Eric Whitacre, Karl Jenkins, Steven Gutheinz, and John Tavener.

Here are the program notes:

In December 2011, the Meadows Chorale at SMU was performing in the annual Lessons and Carols Concert. As a member of the chorale, I remember sitting and listening to the Master of Sacred Music students perform a few of their works telling of the Christmas message and I noticed a certain musical figure was being used as a motif throughout their performance. I found it impossible to get it out of my head afterwards and thought about writing a work that explored using this particular figure. In the Spring of 2012, I was required to write an orchestra project and almost immediately I knew that this was chance to take that fragment of music that I had heard in December and create my own original work around it. May this piece echo in you.