A Very Star-like Start
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello
Year Composed: 2017
Duration: 8 minutes
Program Notes:
Purchase Score/Parts
A Very Star-Like Start is a short capriccio for eight instruments, commissioned by the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble. I completed the work at the Millay Colony, an artist’s retreat founded by the estate of Edna St. Vincent Millay and housed on her property in Upstate NY. The title comes from Robert Frost’s description of fireflies in the garden, a common sight on the Millay Colony grounds:
A Very Star-Like Start is a short capriccio for eight instruments, commissioned by the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble. I completed the work at the Millay Colony, an artist’s retreat founded by the estate of Edna St. Vincent Millay and housed on her property in Upstate NY. The title comes from Robert Frost’s description of fireflies in the garden, a common sight on the Millay Colony grounds:
“Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.”
Though the title came at the end of the compositional process, as it often does, the poem helped me understand something about the piece I was creating. First, the mosaic construction of the piece resembles a field of fireflies. Each instrument winks in and out of sight, creating composite lines and textures that no instrument creates on its own. On a deeper level, Frost articulates something that I think artists understand: we fall short of what we aspire to, and create something else, perhaps beautiful, in the process.
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A Very Star-like Start
Zohn Collective, Tim Weiss, cond.
Appears on Albums:
Catch Somewhere
Released: 06/02/2023
New Focus Records
Portrait album with Zohn Collective, including Molly Barth, Zach Finkelstein, Dieter Hennings, Daniel Pesca, and Paul Vaillancourt. Led by Tim Weiss.
Portrait album with Zohn Collective, including Molly Barth, Zach Finkelstein, Dieter Hennings, Daniel Pesca, and Paul Vaillancourt. Led by Tim Weiss.
Purchase Album:
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