Vocare

I. Tenacious Endeavors                                            

II. An Honest Prayer                                               

III. Echoes of Dance

From primal rhythms to soulful harmonies, Vocare explores the beauty and extremes of the string orchestra.  String instruments are often considered to have a more refined sound palette than the more colorful woodwinds or brass, but in fact they possess a world of astonishing sonorities.

The first movement, Tenacious Endeavors, uses all manner of percussive sounds to build organic, visceral rhythms that build in a primal and possessed manner. In stark contrast, the second movement – An Honest Prayer – uses more sustained lyrical textures to explore the tune from the  hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour."  Echoes of Dance closed the pieces with echoes and fragments of imagined ancient dances.

From the Latin word "to call," vocare is the root of many words such as evoke, provoke, and invoke – and the piece seeks to use a wide variety of sounds to impact the listener.  Vocare came about after a dear friend and mentor of mine finally lost his battle with cancer. He never gave up on me and was willing to have hard conversations about the important things in life. This piece is for him.