for you beautiful ones my thought is not changeable (Composition / Recording) 2021 concerns the themes of fragmentation and translation as they exist in two specific Sappho poems translated by Anne Carson. The first half of the piece follows one poem, representing the exact distribution of text that is present and text that is missing. The instrumentation is broken up into three parts; strings interpret the present text, brass speculates about what is lost, and electronics provide contextual cross-over. Only upon reaching the second poem-which is itself a single fragment-can the interpretation of what is present and speculation on the overall context join together. As stated in Carson’s book If not, winter Sappho was a musician, and her poems lyric. Not only is this piece a continuation of the poetry’s lineage of translations-from Greek to English to Music-but it is also a reintegration with, and reimagination of the poetry and its original context-music.

If you would like to perform the piece, please contact me for the score.

World Premiere: Bard College Music Alive! - Music at the Threshold // December 9, 2021

Conductor - Colin Roshak

Electronics - Jonah Knapp-Wilson

Trumpet - Aleksandar Vitanov

Trombone - Anthony Ruocco

Violin - Isabel Chin Garita

Cello - Sarah Martin