Update Title: 1894002C-0040-42CE-AFCC-13FAC831E99E

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I lived in Utah for four years, between 1985 and 1989. One of the things that impressed me greatly was how incredibly beautiful the state is, and how varied, with its monumental canyons, its desolate deserts, its magnificent sunsets. It seemed only appropriate, then, when Joseph Silverstein and I first discussed my writing a work for the Utah Symphony, that I should try to reflect as much as I could of my experiences there in what would be my first work written especially for a Utah premiere.

The title comes from Coleridge's great poem "Kubla Khan," which begins:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.

In some way, while standing on a mountain top watching the sun set behind the Great Salt Lake, these lines, obviously written with other intent, seemed to reflect in mood and content some of my own feelings.

The whole subject of "program" music is a touchy one. I believe very strongly that a work of music cannot specifically portray concrete physical events: there are no musical knives and forks, or even musical sunsets. Music can, however, evoke moods, though the perception of these varies somewhat from listener to listener. It can make references to the real world which are genuinely imitative (like the bird calls in Beethoven's 6th Symphony). Finally (and what occurs most often in my piece), it can meet the world halfway by making a description of an event match a description of the music. One could use the image of a sunset sky. Parts of the sky rapidly become rich and warm, then are slowly swallowed up in darkness. In this Rhapsody, musical phrases often start out by quickly growing in richness and then gradually darken until they disappear. This is not the only way the music proceeds, but it is an important one in my piece -- and the other ways that the music goes make other analogies with visual events.

If there is to be any sense in the sound, music must follow some rules of syntax. My work is not a "traditional" piece. Rather, it is based on rules which have grown out of the older traditions during the last 100 years. In attempting to create a coherent progression of sounds, I hope you will perceive a sense of rightness about the pitches and rhythms. This should happen even though my music does not proceed, at least on the surface, much like music written using rules of traditional tonality.

Down to a Sunless Sea: a Rhapsody for String Orchestra is dedicated to Joseph Silverstein and the Utah Symphony, who premiered it in 1987. It was written with assistance from the Snowbird Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

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