… a blossomed bough is broken (2023)

… a blossomed bough is broken was written for the Haven Trio in the early part of 2023. The work is the second in a series of compositions looking at how light filters through different kinds of trees; in this case, the Cherry Blossom Tree. The form and emotional context are also influenced by Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s poem, A Mood.

Throughout the setting of the text, the vocal part sings a scanting number of recognizable syllables and words, instead extended vowels and consonants from throughout the poem to add to dense, yet crystaline instrumental textures – symbolic of the emotions in the interplay between the poem’s speaker and surrounding nature.

The work was premiered by the Haven Trio in April of 2023.