for 2 melodicas, 2 glockenspiels, 2 suspended cymbals
duration: 14'

PROGRAM NOTE

sea with endless waves is in three parts, played without pause. All three parts are excerpted from a larger suite of music I wrote for a production of The Tempest directed by Jean-Bernhard Bucky at Williams College in November 2015. In that production, my music was paired with John Luther Adams' elemental Three Drum Quartets from Earth and the Great Weather, which functioned as the recurring sound for the titular storm.

The first movement of sea with endless waves originally accompanied a cascade of water nymphs lifting Ferdinand out of the sea, presenting him to Miranda for the first time as the tempest rages far off over the ocean. As they see each other, they instantly fall in love.

The second movement uses music from later in the play, when Prospero's incantations call forth a variety of spirits who surround the two lovers, now bound to each other until death. The third movement makes use of a fragment of a tune I composed for Ariel's song "Where the bee sucks," which Ariel sings in the final act upon learning that Prospero finally intends to set him/her free. Specifically, I extracted the setting of the word "merrily," the melody repeatedly cascading downward, tumbling with a kind of barely-contained joy.

Transformed for this piece, this music is influenced by the vast natural world of the island and the waves reaching out into the endless sea that surrounds it.