Composer’s Note

I originally composed a short version of this piece for a chamber music concert hosted by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The PSO was the first symphony orchestra that I got to know well. The ensemble was present for so many of the “first times” I heard orchestral works live, and in my various combinations of being in Pittsburgh over the years, I’ve gotten to know the ensemble as an audience member, on stage singing with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and also as a member of the operations team for a whirlwind gap year of administrative experience. In 2011 I worked for a portion of the PSO’s European tour, and while the whole thing was an exceptional glimpse into a world of making music that I might never have gotten to know otherwise, one specific memory came dashing back to me when the opportunity to write a new work was pitched my way.

While in Luzern, Switzerland, I had a morning off and decided to go on a run. I had been to Luzern when I was about 8 years old, for Fasnacht, Switzerland’s version of Mardi Gras. As a child, I remember watching brass and drum bands wind through the streets in celebration, over the covered bridge, wearing the scariest masks and out-of-this-world fur costumes. It was absolute chaos- no parade route, no single set repertoire that everyone plays together, just a glorious cacophony of music and confetti.

But in 2011 when I was there, I took a path less traveled, leaving the city and following a wanderweg (trail) that skirted Lake Luzern and pivoted up into the hills. The further I got from the hotel, the more residential, then rural, then forested things became. The path turned into dirt and occasionally a small sign that said “wanderweg” let me know I wasn’t yet lost. In a pre-iPhone life, I was relying on a sense of place to keep hold of my direction and remember how to get back.

I didn’t register it then, but I think back on that moment now with great nostalgia; the journey of leaving the activity of the city and disappearing into the woods is a theme that has run rampant across my life in the fifteen years since, and I often crave that transition from activity to quiet, where everything fades away and there is a deepening of my breath, where I feel like I can hear more widely and slow down.

The original shorter piece, just 5 minutes, left only enough time to retreat from the high energy to the quiet. This new, expanded version, reorchestrated and stretched out in a commission from Nat28, gets to cover the entire journey; the departure from the energy of the city, an exploration of distance out instead of motion towards, and a return to the joyous twists and turns of the old city with fresh perspective. The piece is held together by a “Kuhreihen,” a variant of a Swiss tune used by herders to call the cows in from their Alpen fields.