Update Title: DBEB6F17-9271-4346-A444-50C05A9DC799

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Morris Louis (November 28, 1912 - September 7, 1962), along with his contemporaries Helen Frankenthaler and Kenneth Noland, became one of the leading figures of Color Field painting. In his short yet prolific career, most of which he spent in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., Louis continually experimented during the 1950’s with method and
medium, manipulating large canvases in creative ways to control the flow and stain of his acrylic paints. His mature style,
characterized by layered veils and rivulets of poured acrylic paint on untreated canvases, makes his some of the most
iconic work of Color Field painting.
Louis’s painting Point of Tranquility (1959‒1960, 8' 5 3⁄8" X 11' 2 3⁄4"), which hangs at the Smithsonian’s Hirschhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., provided the inspiration for this musical composition. The painting is an
example of Louis’s “floral veils,” which he created by folding unprimed canvas in various shapes as he poured paint onto it.
Louis layered the acrylic pigment in a pattern that suggests a flower. The “veils” are apparent in the overlap of pigment,
where washes both obscure and reveal layers of thinned color. I have attempted to create in musical sound, gesture, and
form Louis’s vivid washes of color and sense of structural freedom.
Point of Tranquility begins with a series of muted brass chord progressions that emerge from a hushed texture to set
the sonic tone of the work. These harmonies, accompanied by undulating rhythmic figures in the woodwinds and
percussion, form the basis of the modal harmonic language from which the entire work evolves. The exposition begins
with an arching melody first sung by flute, oboe, and muted trumpet, which is then intoned by other woodwind and
brass instruments. The development section unfolds with a series of episodic variations combining the harmonic, melodic,
and rhythmic motifs in various instrumental choirs and colors. The coda follows with fragments of music from the
exposition and development scattered throughout the ensemble as the work glides to a point of tranquil repose.
Point of Tranquility was composed especially for the United States Coast Guard Band in New London, Connecticut,
and its director Lieutenant Commander Adam R. Williamson as a gift for their extraordinary support throughout the
performance and recording of my band music. The work was composed January through May 2017 in Mansfield Center,
Connecticut.

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