Twilight Verses

Commissioned by Gary Malvern for the 2010 Feste Fantini trumpet festival at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Twilight Verses sets two poems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. The first of the two movements, “Where Go the Boats,” reflects the subject of the text through the use of 6/8 meter and dotted rhythms that recall a barcarolle in the style of Chopin, Fauré and Offenbach. This setting is largely strophic with some variations in the vocal melody from verse to verse and instrumental interludes between each strophe. The second movement, “Escape at Bedtime,” is through-composed, though the texture established in the first four measures serves as an important recurring element throughout the movement.