E54CE748-EA7A-4BD9-885A-187A3683BCD1

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IDE54CE748-EA7A-4BD9-885A-187A3683BCD1
TitlecodeX502004
Title NameTo Be Sung on the Water
Marketing Copy"The concerts freshest sounds came from Donald Crockett's dreamily lyrical To Be Sung on the Water...whose parts slip in and out of sync with each other. Silences provide breath and shape, sometimes suggesting Morton Feldman's airy designs and sometimes a kind of accidental Gothic Americana." --Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times. Recorded by the Stanford String Quartet, Laurel Record CD LR-858.
InstrumentationViolin, Viola
Commission(not set)
DedicationWritten for Michelle Makarski and Ronald Copes
Program Notes"To Be Sung on the Water" was written for Michelle Makarski and Ronald Copes and was completed in January 1988, in Los Angeles. The title of the piece, which became increasingly insistent during its composition, refers to vocal works of the same name by Franz Schubert and Samuel Barber. There are no musical references to these earlier pieces, but the sense of the title, of singing on water, is present throughout.

The music unfolds in a series of stanzas, generally increasing in length, and separated by silence. Though mostly quiet and gentle, a more agitated section occurs toward the middle of the work. Double-stops (playing on two strings simultaneously) and non-synchronous rhythms predominate (as water images), but the central section features a melody presented as an unaccompanied line. The piece closes with a return to the shorter phrases of the opening. --Donald Crockett
Title Brand2
Year Composed1988
Copyright Number(not set)
Copyright Year(not set)
Duration10
Ensemble Size2
Date Created2008-10-31 20:32:06.000000
Date Updated2025-09-30 20:32:06
Inhouse Note(not set)
Bsc Code(not set)
Text Author(not set)
Premier Performance Memo(not set)
Recording CreditsRecorded by the Stanford String Quartet, Laurel Record CD LR-858.
Review"The concerts freshest sounds came from Donald Crockett's dreamily lyrical To Be Sung on the Water...whose parts slip in and out of sync with each other. Silences provide breath and shape, sometimes suggesting Morton Feldman's airy designs and sometimes a kind of accidental Gothic Americana." --Josef Woodard, Los Angeles Times

"The real high points of the evening, though, were two gorgeous works by the West Coast composer Donald Crockett. There’s a great naturalness and effortlessness in Crockett’s writing, and "to be sung on the water", a hymn-like duet performed by violinist Adkins, with Abigail Evans on viola had a kind of distant, otherworldly glow, like nymphs singing from some underwater realm." ----Stephen Brookes, The Washington Post
Awards(not set)
Title Category10
Title Movements(not set)
Title Grade(not set)
Set Series ID(not set)
Title Instrument Category TextString Duo & Ensemble
Title Sub Category Text(not set)
Title Sub Category29
Title Instrument Header63
Title Grade Text(not set)
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