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The Rhodora - 2008 // Beginning in a tumultuous fashion, the music of The Rhodora captures the mood and pace of the poem. The use of the overtone scale, and lydian and mixolydian modes gives the piece an air of nostalgia, while the recurring ostinato drives the music ever-forward. Text-painting is used in this piece, with the “sea-winds” being characterized by the opening ostinato, while the “red-bird” is represented by a lilting dotted figure. Though the soprano is central to this piece, my intention was to create music for the piano that was not mere accompaniment, but rather, would capture the energy and excitement found in the Emerson poem. 
Catalogue No. 04022
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The Rhodora
On being asked, whence is the flower
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there,
brought you.
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