Serenade for Winds, Op. 36

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This work was composed in the summer of 2020: a difficult time for almost everyone. The most that may be said of it is that its composition was therapeutic for me, and I hope that listening to it will also be therapeutic.

The Serenade is scored for ten wind instruments: two each of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns. It is in four movements, in the usual symphonic form, without the extra pair of movements (dance and slow) that most Classical serenades or divertimenti had; but it is not a petite symphonie d'après Gounod. It has a lighter character, and even its progressive tonality does not have the affect of elaborate logic so much as a feeling that one key is as good as another. Its 23-minute span of mostly frivol is anchored by one serious, darkly-glowing moment at the heart of the slow movement.