THE MOTION OF STONE (1998)
chorus and chamber orchestra, 38 min.
instrumentation: sop, alt, ten, bs-barsatb chorus;
1 1,eh 1 0; 2100; timp, 2 perc, hp, pno; vla, vcl, cb

My largest work to date is a setting of sections of A.R. Ammons' poem "Tombstones," from Sumerian Vistas. The critic Helen Vendler helped me chisel the lengthy poem to its essential state. I scored the work for soloists, chorus and a chamber orchestra without violins. The seven movements contemplate the inscription of names into stone and the eventual erosion of the seemingly permanent. The Motion of Stone was the culmination of a residency I had at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and was premiered by the Museum's Chamber Orchestra in 1999. Anne Howard Jones conducted the orchestra with the Boston University Chamber Choir. Much of the piece was composed during a residency I had at the American Academy in Rome, the perfect city for observing stone.

Listen to a sample.