Update Title: A0EF13D9-5704-4954-AC87-5E42366ECED8

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During the initial phase of my work on Amethyst, I became interested in crystal and was looking closely at a large octahedron of purple fluorite I had placed on my piano.  In observing the various intensities of color, the play of light off its complex internal planes, and the glitter of other mineral inclusions shining through the crystal's facets,  I was drawn into both the visual drama and the aesthetic beauty of this crystal.  The patterns forming it both internally and externally were related to each other, yet as soon as one pattern could be followed, a contradicting visual cue would appear which could be perceived as belonging to, mysteriously enough, some other ongoing pattern, which itself would soon be diverted.

In an atmosphere of fluorite, areas of purple whose boundaries seemed unrelated to the geometric structure floated like clouds.  The crystal appeared to me, then, as a combination of strict line and sensuous color.  These visual attributes suggested a way of designing a piece of music around a single theme (and its variants) such that a high incidence of exact repetition would be available in different guises, and the strictness of internal coherency would be made plastic and expressive by means of richly variegated orchestral palette.

Just as the detailed visual perception of an object takes place over time, so does the aural perception of music as it unfolds in the listener's mind.  The drama of this unveiling of events, whether visual or aural, may then give way to some realization--some higher knowledge--about the visual or sonic object, and perhaps even about oneself.  Specific kinds of knowledge have been associated in astrology with specific colors.  The "Purple Ray" of the Third Eye, for example, is regarded as both the avenue of altered awareness and the realization that the nature of reality consists of continuously changing shapes.  Because of the amethyst's deep violet color, and because of my preoccupation with what Arnold Schoenberg has called "the endless reshaping of a basic shape," I titled my composition Amethyst.

In writing Amethyst, I sought to explore the musical consequences of exact repetition with respect to themes, motives, timbres, and characteristic orchestral textures.  The juxtaposition of relatively unchanged musical elements combined with actual variation of a single theme was crucial in shaping the form and expressive content of this fifteen-minute composition.

Amethyst consists of two parts.  The first functions as a prologue, whose texture begins with rhythmically active yet veiled references to the theme but which later becomes saturated with thematic fragments.  This section culminates in the disclosure of the melodic archetype of the composition, revealed now in its entirety.  Serving as both the end of the first part and the beginning of the second, the melody now unfolds in a series of variations.
The issues of motivic saturation, variation, and dramatic presentation of a hard-won melodic theme seemed to me ideally suited for orchestral treatment.  In addition to the double winds, four percussion and strings of the Amethyst orchestra, soloistic use is made of piccolo trumpet, piano, harp, and soprano voice.  The latter assumes the role of an instrumentalist by singing open vowels modified to produce a variety of tonal color. --Ann Callaway

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