- Elegy for a Singer (1997) string orchestra 8'
- Strings, celesta, harp
- Premiere–1997, by the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Eiji Oue, Mpls., MN.
Program Notes
Elegy for a Singer is a brief, straightforward work for strings, harp and celesta in ternary form. After a series of queries and sighs, a broad melody unfolds over sustained harmonies in D-flat major (a key with a particular cast, exploited famously by Mahler and Tchaikovsky). A gentle refrain leads to an airier middle section, then a statement of the main idea by the most delicate instruments of the orchestra-harp and celesta-against gleaming diatonic clusters. After an expansive climax, the refrain returns to quiet the work. The "singer" is not a singer at all, but a conductor: John P. Paynter, faculty at Northwestern University for 43 years until his death in 1996.