good-byes
composed in 2008 - for clarinet, violoncello, and piano
good-byes was written for the Yellowwood Trio as a part of the 2008 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chamber Music Institute. When I first met the trio, I found out that this was to be their last performance for some time, as they were all leaving for different graduate programs around the country. The notion of a "farewell" piece immediately came to me, reinforced by my own experiences. The life of a young academic is a transient one - one is meeting new friends one moment, and bidding them farewell the next. While I was writing this piece, I was coming to terms with the fact that many of the good friends I had made when I first arrived in Bloomington (in 2004) had left, and yet I remained.
The piece is loosely programattic, beginning with "the end" of the group, pronounced with a firm authentic cadence, and moving on from there. The later movements are manifestations of the different feelings one has after saying good-bye - the excitement and anticipation of something new, the painful nostalgia for what has been lost, and the ultimately satisfying realization that these losses need not be permanent.
The musical language in good-byes is often times sentimental, yet notation allowing some rhythmic freedom recurs at various points in the piece. Each instruments is featured in the latter movements - the clarinet in the second, the cello in the third, and the piano in the fourth.
The first three movements of good-byes were first performed at the 2008 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chamber Music Institute.
good-byes
1. The Big Finish (listen to an excerpt)
2. Long Drive Out West
3. Remembering
4. A Chance Encounter
