Program Notes

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    Rivers Three is my doctoral thesis. The work is a summation of the interests, compositional threads, and philosophical realizations undergone throughout the five years spent pursuing my DMA. “Youghiogheny,” the first movement, was originally composed for the Etchings Festival in 2021, and upon its completion I felt the piece suggested a grander vision. I took cues from its motives and character and fashioned two new movements out of this source, taking as inspiration the two rivers that flow into Pittsburgh, the Allegheny and Monongahela, which join and become the grand Ohio River at Three Points State Park. The Youghiogheny River meets the Mon not far south of the city, and an environment where the “water” swirls and grows in complexity and depth as our context and surrounds change was an alluring prospect for a large piece of music. The Yough is a rapid-filled, powerful river, while the Allegheny is calmer thanks to a series of locks and dams but flows through the wildest, most isolated terrain in Pennsylvania. The Mon, being wide and smooth flowing through Pittsburgh, offers more in its industrial history, being a source of water for the major steel mills and heavy industry that made the city famous. The music reflects this industrial heritage and the smog, smoke, and fire of the factories that drove the Industrial Revolution in the United States. Rivers Three was commissioned by Micheal Barnes, whose dedication to my work has been the highest privilege of my career.