Life Endures

Life Endures, As the River Flows is a work for String Orchestra composed during the COVID 19 pandemic of 2020. These are the thoughts that guided this creation. Today Man is faced with a great challenge, survival in the face of a global pandemic. COVID 19, a novel virus, has gripped the world with unprecedented force affecting millions medically, financially, and emotionally. As this work is completed, schools and churches are closed, businesses are closed, and people are experiencing quarantine or shelter in place until solutions toward recovery can be found. Underlying the trauma and tragedy is a sense of optimism that the pandemic will pass. It may just be the human spirit that bolsters the optimism, the antithesis to the crisis, but as we look to nature, we see the ebb and flow of cycles. Seasons change, weather patterns change, living things die and new growth appears. Perhaps that is what gives us hope. This music shifts many times to represent the uncertainty of the future, imitating the unpredictability of nature. Life Endures, begins with a foreboding opening theme followed by a development of ideas that shift between E minor and G major keys, homophonic and polyphonic textures and sustained vs. moving notes. Students will enjoy playing syncopated, upbeat rhythms, as well as expressive, emotive phrases. This piece may be performed alone, or as a trilogy with Nature Restores and Water Glistens, other works in my catalog that were composed during the pandemic.