2025 Concert Set 3: Music for Flute, Viola & Harp
- loonlakelive
- May 12
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 16
July 25 7:30pm Historic Saranac Lake Laboratory
July 26 10:30am Saranac Lake Free Library
July 27 7:30pm House Concert in Loon Lake
PROGRAM
3 American Folk Hymns by Kenji Bunch (1973- )
Prelude;
What Wondrous Love This Is;
In Lonely Mountain Ways;
I Come With Joy;
Finale
Shelly Tramposh and Catherine Beeson, violas
The Bird and The Garden* by Frances White (1960- )
Christine Fish Moulton, flute
Catherine Beeson, viola
Lynette Wardle, harp
*This is a world premiere! Be sure to read the story below.
Sonata by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato
Interlude: Tempo di minuetto
Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto
Christine Fish Moulton, flute
Catherine Beeson, viola
Lynette Wardle, harp
MUSICIANS
Catherine Beeson, viola
Christine Fish Moulton, flute
Shelly Tramposh, viola
Lynette Wardle, harp
(Shown above in alphabetical order)
Plus, composer Frances White will be present!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Click on the name of the piece below to skip right to it!
Kenji Bunch (1973- ) is an American composer and, most notably, a VIOLIST. :) His works for large and small ensembles have been commissioned, performed, and recorded throughout the United States and abroad by many major groups. Kenji’s style is marked by his distinctive ability to combine traditional American music with European derived classical music techniques. His works often incorporate elements of hip hop, jazz, bluegrass and funk to critical acclaim. According to The Oregonian, Kenji Bunch has won “a reputation as one of the nation's finest and most listener-friendly composers of his generation.”
3 American Folk Hymn Settings is a composition originally commissioned in 2001 for two violins, but luckily he came to his senses and arranged it for two violas in 2006. It is in 5 sections which flow continuously from one to the next, beginning and ending with a brief Prologue and Finale, and showcasing “What Wondrous Love This Is”, “In Lonely Mountain Ways”, and “I Come With Joy” as the central hymn settings. Melodic and harmonic material is passed between, and shared, equally among the two violas. The settings, including Prologue and Finale, are a river of peaceful, centering, meditative, hopeful, joyous sounds.
A typical performance lasts about 10 minutes.
Frances White (1960- ) is a composer of instrumental, vocal, and electronic music. Her music has been called "stunning" (American Record Guide) "moving" (Fanfare), "spectacularly beautiful", and "so atmospheric and sensuous it is almost fragrant" (Musicworks). Her music conveys intimacy and immediacy, with a tactile and deeply expressive approach which derives from a sincere belief in the transformative nature of sound. White studies the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), and finds that its unique spiritual and sonic voice informs her work as a composer. A 2004 Guggenheim fellow and graduate of Princeton University, Frances White has received awards, grants, residencies and commissions from many respected national and international organizations. White is the recipient of a 2023 fellowship grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which funded works for harpist Danielle Kuntz and for the Chimera Trio (flute, viola, harp)
White finished composing The Bird and The Garden in April 2025. It is a single movement trio for flute, viola, and harp which is inspired by a modern fairy tale about a high empath bird, a beautiful garden, and the melancholy woman inside its high walls. The music has evocative cinematic narrative driven qualities that are supported very well by the perfumey swirling capabilities of the harp and flute as well as the languid melodic storytelling voice of the viola.
A typical performance lasts about 10 minutes.
This performance is a World Premiere.
Hear what composer Frances White has to say about the piece!
Read the story!
The bird and the garden (from a fairy tale)
He was a plain bird: small and brown and easy to overlook in the dim forest light. But the sound of his voice would immediately draw your attention. Everyone thought it was the most beautiful song that they had ever heard, even though no two people would describe it the same way. “Oh, those light, airy trills!” one person would say. “No, he doesn’t trill,” their friend would say, “he has a beautiful long, low note that slowly bends upward in the most soulful way.”
His entrancing music was the result of his special connection to humans. He could look into their eyes and see the unique constellations of desires and fears that shaped their lives. When he saw the patterns of a person’s feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, he was able to read these as a musician would read a score. Each person heard something unique because the bird sang exactly the song that they most needed to hear—the song that was written in their innermost nature.
Because of this, the songs had a powerful effect on those that heard them. For one with strong desires, the song told them how to make their dreams come true. For one of a dark disposition, the song reflected the darkness back to them, and more than one person had gone to their death after hearing the bird. The bird never intended any of these results, good or bad. Realizing that his singing could be dangerous, he tried to stay away from people, lurking in the deepest parts of the woods.
One day, far into the forest, he encountered a high wall. He stopped and considered it carefully. Who had built this wall so far from the city? What were they hiding so deep in the woods? He flew up high in the trees to peek over the wall, and saw a garden inside. It was the most beautiful garden he had ever seen, but he also sensed a loneliness about it that saddened him.
Then he noticed a young woman in the garden, resting on a bench under a tree. How could someone in such a lovely place be so lonely and so sad? Without thinking, he flew down and perched next to her. He looked into her eyes, and at once he understood her completely. His heart opened and he began singing her song.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was a highly influential French Modernist Impressionist composer. He never appreciated being labeled Impressionist, but that label has stuck. What do you think of when you hear the terms “Modernist” or “Impressionist” or “atonal”? Are you thinking “pretty” or “soothing” or “fun and exciting”? All of these labels are accurate descriptors of Claude Debussy’s compositional style. He was known as an innovative composer who broke new ground on expressive ideas in music, but for most of us his power lies in the brilliant, beautiful, and engaging sounds he created rather than the painstaking attention to detail and planning he applied to his compositions. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, composed for full orchestra in 1894 and widely considered to be the first Modernist piece of music, is an excellent example. This represented a turning point in classical composition toward modern atonal music - music without a sense of home “key” or a hierarchical structure of notes.
Sonata is a groundbreaking trio for flute, viola, and harp in three movements, composed in 1915 during World War 1 and while Debussy was suffering with the cancer that took his life just 3 years later.
In attempting to describe the peculiarly twisting and turning emotional landscape of Sonata, Debussy wrote, “I can’t say whether one should laugh or cry. Perhaps both at the same time?”
The first movement, Pastorale: Lento, dolce rubato, is a sensitive conversational piece with little sense of flowing time. The second movement, Interlude: Tempo di minuetto, is a charming nod to the stylized Baroque/Classical era Minuet dance in 3/4 time with a duple meter section in the center throwing listeners a lovely surprise. The third movement, Finale: Allegro moderato ma risoluto, is in turns aggressive, foreboding, teashing, and sultry. It is the movement that uses the most extended techniques in the viola for unusual tone production, and is filled with sudden tempo changes and moments of flair. The piece finishes with a quote from first movement before finding its triumphant shining ending.
A typical performance lasts about 18 minutes.
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