Elegy and Dance

Elegy and Dance for Chamber Ensemble was written, in many ways, for New York City itself.  There is no specific program to the piece, rather a description of two different moments in time.  The first part is a quasi-introduction. Imagine the city before dawn, overlooking the Hudson River as it drifts quietly into the Upper Bay beneath downtown Manhattan. The sounds can evoke the feeling of a sleeping city, the harbor’s slow activity, and a foreshadowing (or perhaps a memory) of an unbearable heaviness.

The second part is a dance to celebrate the city’s inextinguishable spirit. It is Manhattan during rush hour.  Everyone races by, each at his own speed, described by the polyphony of movement, of life.  Elegy and Dance for Chamber Ensemble was written for and performed by Speculum Musicae at the Miller Theater in New York City in 2004, with Jeffrey Milarsky conducting.  It was, subsequently revised in 2006.