Ashes of Roses

This work is a fresh setting of the Requiem Mass. The work, for soloists, chorus, and orchestra, takes its name from the poem by Elaine Goodale Eastman, incorporated as the fourth movement. Compositionally, the music offers a variety of melody, texture, and color. The harmony is tonal but unrestricted by convention, employing extended harmonies and layering effects. Instrumentation ranges from sparse to extremely thick, as does the rhythmic and metrical vocabulary, with frequent changes of meter and tempo and the use of asymmetrical meter. The performers must negotiate a host of rhythmic gestures and syncopations in the course of the text painting. While complex at times, the music flows logically and is always in sight of the emotional impact of the larger work.