Images of Family - Program Notes

Images of Family is a collection of musical illustrations that represent various stages or memories from life in a family. The first movement, Toddler, begins with a single repeated note, meant to simulate the ticking of a clock. As any parent of a toddler notes, when things are that quiet, it is time to go find out just what that toddler is up to.

The second movement, Dandelion Bouquet, is about the precious moments that a young child brings to a family along with the calamitous ones celebrated in the first movement. The image portrayed is of a small bouquet of dandelions, carefully picked and presented to the child's mother as evidence of the everlasting bond between parent and child.

Loading the Car presents a picture of a larger family with older children piling into a car for a family vacation, together with all the chaos that results. Inevitably, the family finds that they have forgotten something (or someone) and they have to backtrack several times before finally heading off on their planned adventure.

To a Newlywed, life could not be more beautiful or more perfect. The fourth movement takes a look through the optimistic eyes of a young man and woman, barely beyond their own childhood years, as they join together to begin a family of their own.

The fifth movement, Afternoon in Grandpa's Meadow, contrasts with the previous movement in harmonic language and style. Yet at the same time, in some ways, it finds its birth in and grows out of that fourth movement. This is an image of that same love of life, undimmed by the years, only tempered by experience and expressed with the deep maturity that comes from enduring each of the challenges that life brings.

The final movement, Journey Home, has the most specific program of the six movements. It takes us on a journey that begins with death, leaving behind family and loved ones, and carries us all the way through to our joyful reunion with those who have gone before us. It begins by ticking away the final moments of life, reminiscent of, yet different from, the clock in the first movement. All the musical materials in this movement are derived from the previous movements and two phrases from the chorus of the Christian hymn God Be With You Till We Meet Again, which is often sung at funerals. We finally hear these two phrases in their entirety as the music carries beyond the veil of this world into the next. In this piece, I have tried to express some of my feelings about death and the joy of the reunion which will come thereafter.