Completed: April, 2022.

Commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, and dedicated with admiration to James Wilson, its artistic director.

Instrumentation: two violins, viola, violoncello, contrabass

Program Note

The James River’s steep shores are dotted with cemeteries, some famous and some forgotten, where austere tombstones and ornate mausoleums sit still and silent, high above the rushing waters below. This is one of Richmond, Virginia’s essential scenes, and one that is lodged in my memory from growing up there.

In They Rest Above the River, a string quintet explores the beauty and strangeness of this scene. At first, the river flows into life, before the music’s watery melodies rise up the steep cliffs and freeze in place in the silent cemetery. Here, we hear evocations of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Catacombs,” before the ghosts of Virginians come to life, mingling phrases of imagined (or forgotten?) local tunes. Before any of them can sing for too long, we descend again to river level, where water moves over rock and life lives on (for now).

Upon ordering, you will be emailed a download link to a ZIP file containing a PDF score and parts.