When I started writing this piece I did not follow an extra-musical subject, no story inspired this work. I have simply tried to write a composition that would befit the timbre and expressive of this

America the Beautiful is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates, and the music was composed by Samuel A. Ward who was both church organist and choirmaster at

Transcribed by Rebecca Mindock. Nineteenth-Century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) composed his String Quartet No. 1, op. 11 in February of 1871. Its hauntingly lovely slow

The Andante and Gavotte for Four Bassoons was composed in 1940. Although it bears no formal dedication, it is safe to assume that it was written for Van Vactor's close friends, bassoonists George