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Score title
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Mornings of Creation
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Composer
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Gwyneth Walker
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Date
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2015
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Instrumentation
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Piano trio (piano, violin, cello)
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Program note
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Commissioned by Fairfield University to celebrate the 25th season of the Quick Center for the Arts
Premiered by The Connecticut Trio on September 27, 2015, Fairfield, Connecticut
Mornings of Creation is a five-movement suite for piano trio. This music was created during the composer's customary composing hours -- during the morning. Thus, the message is one of the freshness of a new day, and the energy of creative impulse.
"First Notes" opens with light patterns in the strings, as bird calls. Initially presented individually, the calls join together as a precursor to the main theme of the movement, presented by cello and then violin. A middle section in the minor mode features tremoli in the piano. This is a restless, energetic section which leads to the return of the theme. The movement ends with the cello and violin intertwined, while the piano plays bird calls above.
"The Passing Light" speaks in specks of light patterns for the strings, with glissandi (on the strings inside the piano). [Perhaps these are rays of light.] Often the piano accompaniment gently trembles. A theme is presented in the strings. There is intensity and sorrow in the passing of the light.
The third movement, "Rising," opens with ascending chords in the piano. But it is the spirit of joy associated with the theme (in violin and cello) which is truly uplifting. This is especially American music -- open and direct -- composed by a New England composer who prefers to create her music close to home.
Although Mornings of Creation is essentially a celebratory suite, an "Elegy" came naturally to follow the previous three movements. This elegy is spacious and unrushed. The mournful theme of downward steps, and its strong countermotive of ascending octaves, recur in various guises, each motive to balance the other. This is an extended journey of the soul. Here, the composer turns within, after the many mornings of creation.
The final movement, "Canaan Land," is a short, celebratory work. This is a joyful excursion to "The Promised Land." The composer, a native of New Canaan, Connecticut, has created this music in honor of her home town.
Notes by the composer
Gwyneth Walker
