Antardhaa   (2007)

Organ

Commissioned by Kendall Crilly

Recorded at Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green, New Haven, CT, February 2009
Premiered at Center Church on the Green, New Haven, CT, June 2007

Program Note

The title is a Sanskrit term meaning, approximately, "to hide within" or "to conceal." Much of the work consists of slow, ornamental melodic lines over drone harmonies which gradually metamorphose, beginning softly in the organ's upper register and discretely expanding in range and volume, ending most loudly and forcefully in the instrument's mid- to lower-range. The piece makes veiled reference to a hymn, "Bennington," by the American composer Daniel Read (1757-1836): the hymn's lines and harmonies are periodically interpolated into (or "hidden within") the fabric of the music, becoming most clearly audible within a blur of sustained notes near the end. I hope that this work is, in my own small way, both a tribute to an early master of American music and a successful transformation of elements of Read's style into my own musical language.