Program Notes

The idea for this piece had rattled around in my head for an overwhelming surplus of moons already by the time I started work on a Graduate capstone. This piece came on the heels of the previous capstone, and had to be conceptualized, written, and edited in just over a semester. I began with just the idea of the story of life, thinking about how a Requiem is a celebration of the end of it. In researching those topics, I realized that there wasn’t a similar celebration for the beginning of life in most Western cultures. In my head, though, I figured the first music one might hear after birth might be a lullaby. From there came the title and a starting point from which to begin my writing.

There are two primary structural elements that informed my composition. First, the piece is split into seven movements. Each movement is preceded by a reading from the “All the World’s a Stage” soliloquy from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. That poem provides much of the structure for the piece; The movements are named for the Seven Ages of Man, and the tone of each movement fits into the respective part of the story of this “man’s” life. The other primary element is the journey through the history of music that is taken through the movements. The “Lullaby Theme” that is presented at the beginning is quoted from “Epitaph of Seikilos,” the earliest extant fully intact composition we’ve discovered. This theme is present throughout every movement. That first quote moves into a dance inspired by the Renaissance period. Then the second movement is Baroque in nature. The third one is Classical. The fourth takes a brief break from this typical history to visit the marches of the 1800s, moving into the early Romantic of the fifth movement. The sixth displays the octatonicism of the late Romantic and 20th century, and the final movement moves into the esoteric and aleatoric today. The texts are pulled from various poets across history, though not strictly from the time period inspiring each movement

The meaning of all this is left up to your interpretation. I had my own intentions when writing it, but feel free to draw your own conclusions. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts! No matter what you think of the piece, I’m thrilled to get the opportunity to have it performed by the UNH Wind Symphony and UNH Chamber Singers. Many thanks to everyone involved in the ensembles, and many thanks to those who enabled me to compose this piece, especially Dr. Boysen and Dr. Favazza, for all their compositional guidance. I hope you enjoy!