The Dove in the Ash Grove

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The Dove in the Ash Grove for Cello and Piano was commissioned by the Cellist Christine Thomas Tsen.  I began work on the piece in September 2012 and completed it in November of the same year.  Christine asked me for a piece that would incorporate Welsh folk songs that have to do with birds for inclusion on her next CD called “Cello Ornithology” and sent me a few of these folk songs.  I didn’t think I would be familiar with any of them, but one of the tunes, “The Ash Grove,” I actually know very well as the hymn “Let All Things Now Living,” not ever knowing the tune was a Welsh folk song.  I decided to have the entire piece center around this tune.  Later on in the compositional process, I decided to add another folk song, “The Dove,” which I found fit well in counterpoint with The Ash Grove.  What ultimately resulted was a fun fantasy on these two tunes with some tinges of jazz.

Finalist, 2015 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award

3rd Prize, 2015 Belvedere Festival Composition Contest (Memphis, TN)

Premiered April 12, 2015 by Benjamin Noyes-cello, and Jesse Feinberg-piano, at the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, Portland Conservatory of Music, Portland, ME.

Recorded on Cello Ornithology by Christine Thomas Tsen-cello, and the composer at the piano.