Emerald Stream

The inspiration for this fantastic piece came when the then seventeen-year-old composer was fishing with his dad in Colorado. The music draws from the shape-note tradition and features a hearty sound, an imitative fugal section, melodic ornaments, open intervals, and doubling at the octave. It is unusual in that the melody is in the bass part. The text by the composer draws on the hymn-writing style of the great theologians of the shape-note tradition, though it proclaims a more contemporary message of environmental stewardship. It has had an extensive pre-publication life that includes performances on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" and by the Christmas Revels, Village Harmony, and Northern Harmony.