First Performed by the Yale Philharmonia, December 2021

First public performance by the Albany Symphony, January 2023

Duration 8 minutes

Instrumentation 2-2-2-2, 4-3-3-1, timp+3, harp, piano, strings

Program Note Harrietlehre gets its name, in part, from the composer John Adams's orchestral work Harmonielehre, a work I deeply admire. Adams’s work, which gets its name from Schoenberg’s music theory textbook of the same title, translates from German to “study of harmony.” In the same way, Harrietlehre might translate to “study of Harriet.” Having never before written for a full orchestra, I made a long list of different orchestral textures and processes I wanted to explore in my first orchestra piece. The music itself began as a few small ideas that, when combined, resulted in a 7-measure phrase. Harrietlehre is, more or less, 24 (studious) repetitions of that same 7-measure phrase.

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