Suite Populaire

Description

Suite Populaire

• The Belford Waltz
• Heard on the Lake
• The Mystic’s Prayer
• Dave’s Reel

Chamber orchestra (1,1,1,1  2,1, opt.T/perc (1 player) strings
Duration: 8′
2015
Premiere: Minnesota Sinfonia, Jay Fishman, cond., 2/2016.
Performance materials on request. Contact DET

Program Note

Minnesota Sinfonia in rehearsal, 2015

Suite Populaire draws together arrangements of several piano works composed over twenty years. In 1996 the American Composers Forum commissioned The Belford Waltz as a one-page piano solo in honor of Elinor Watson Bell, one of Minnesota’s most beloved musical citizens. Mrs. Bell’s home was named Belford. The four-note theme—E-B-E-L—spells out her name. Heard on the Lake takes the same bell motive on a canoe ride on a Montana lake in honor of Jane Van Dyk. The Mystic’s Prayer is an orchestration of a choral setting of a poem by Scottish writer William Sharp (1856–1902).

Lay me to sleep in sheltering flame,
O Master of the Hidden Fire!
Wash pure my heart, and cleanse for me
My soul’s desire

In flame of sunrise bathe my mind,
O Master of the Hidden Fire,
That, when I wake, clear-eyed may be
My soul’s desire.

The final movement is dedicated to a beloved member of the Twin Cities community. In September 2014 the Cities lost David Buran: physician, parent, grandfather, singer. I sang with David in VocalEssence and the Plymouth Congregational Church Choir. In its original form as a piano solo, Dave’s Reel received a Renée Fisher Composer Award for 2017. It is dedicated to Ann Buran.

Suite Populaire received a McKnight Foundation Minnesota Sinfonia New Works Award in 2015.