Performances

Premiere: Lynne Ramsey, viola, Karel Paukert, organ, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, April 20, 2008

Drew Robertson, viola, Todd Wilson, organ, Lake Erie College, Painesville, Ohio, March 21, 2010

Dustin Budish, viola, Dr. Philip Manwell, organ, Music at Trinity, Trinity Episcopal Church, Reno Nevada, October 9, 2016

Josef Kluson, viola, Karel Paukert, organ, Chrudim and Litomysl, Czech Republic, on July 21 and 22, 2018

Program Note

This work is an arrangement by the composer of an eponymous art song for mezzo soprano voice and piano. The text is a poem by the living American poet/naturalist Elizabeth Bradfield whom I met on a trip to Alaska a few years ago. You can find the full text in “Interpretive Work” (Arktoi Books, 2008).

When my friend Karel Paukert asked me for a new piece with viola, I immediately made this arrangement for him. The music is very effective as a purely instrumental piece for this combination of instruments.

Alternate Versions

The original version of this music is an art song for mezzo-soprano and piano by the composer, Monica Houghton.

Discography

Whalefall has been recorded in an arrangement for viola and piano by Michele LaCourse and Martin Amlin on MSR Classics (MS1474)