I. Tybee Tides - score preview
II. Amicalola Falling - score preview
III. Okefenokee Nocturne - score preview
IV. Peachtree Streets - score preview
Duration: 10'
Commissioned by and Dedicated to the Unheard-Of//Ensemble
Peach State Sonneries is a composition comprised of four brief movements, played without pause, that serve as a travelogue to specific locations in the state of Georgia. This is a state I know well and where I have spent much of my life. The geography is quite varied with mountains located to the north (the Appalachian Plateau in the northwest and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northeast), the Atlantic Coastal Plain located in the south, and a very large city near the center of the state.
In the first movement, Tybee Tides, I was thinking about the majesty of the Georgia coastline, especially the coast of Tybee Island, a barrier island known for its wide and sandy beaches. The music is contemplative and seeks to describe both the majesty of the Atlantic Ocean with the serenity of the waves washing the shoreline at dusk.
The second movement, Amicalola Falling, focuses on the beauty of Amicalola Falls, a magnificent 729-foot waterfall on the cusp of the north Georgia mountains that is the third-highest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River. The not-so-subtle falling motives in the piano serve as a backdrop for an imagined hike near the falls on a brisk autumn day.
In stark contrast, the third movement, Okefenokee Nocturne, returns the listener to the southern part of the state and deep into the Okefenokee Swamp. This swamp was formed over the past 6500 years by the accumulation of peat in a shallow basin on the edge of an ancient Atlantic coastal terrace. The music is eerily quiet and almost otherworldly as it seeks to capture the mystery of the primordial landscape and varied wildlife.
Finally, the piece veers suddenly into a very different type of landscape; one created by humans. Georgia is also home to the largest city in the southeastern United States, Atlanta. Despite having many wonderful qualities, the city is often known for its intense traffic, fast drivers, and a proliferation of streets with “Peachtree” included somewhere in the name. The fourth movement, Peachtree Streets, features fast-paced music that is generally in perpetual motion with melodic ideas flying all about the performers like hundreds of cars bolting along I-285, zipping in-between lanes at breakneck speeds. There are, inevitably, certain points in any ride through Atlanta when the brakes must be applied suddenly and forcefully resulting in no lack of road frustration. This is depicted musically by intense, asymmetrically beating, chords. All in all, I think the movement is, if nothing else, an accurate description of my commute to work each day.