Written for Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, Eduardo Leandro and Kevin Dufford, Twilight’s Last Gleaming received its premiere performance in 2009 at the Morgan Library in New York City.
1. War Approaching
2. Souls Ascending
3. Peace Pretending
The language of Twilight’s Last Gleaming is so forceful and affecting that I think it transcends the message and the anxious time in history that produced it. (Audiophile Audition)[read full review comparing Twilight’s Last Gleaming to Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen].
Program Note:
Twilight’s Last Gleaming was written for my esteemed colleagues, Gilbert Kalish, Christina Dahl, and Eduardo Leandro. Composed between 2005 and 2007, it is inspired by the dire circumstances of global war mongering. As I worked on this piece, various images passed through my mind: tanks lumbering through villages and deserts spewing death and destruction; bells and chimes calling up the souls of fallen soldiers; insincere smiles of lying and corrupt statesmen, are but a few. A “chant” or “chorale” tune emerges out of the opening music of the first movement and reappears, in various contexts, throughout the piece. Tonal and non-tonal elements exist side-by-side; triads are stripped of their “functional” meaning. The appearance of the Star Spangled Banner in the finale is a “wake-up call” for our country to embody the ideals for which it claims to be fighting. Twilight’s Last Gleaming is a response to the Iraq – and all — war perpetrated in the name of “God and Country.”