Those Flowers Were Sweet When
I Pressed Them (2024-6)
Piano Quintet: 2 Violins, Viola, Cello, Piano
Commissioned by Ensemble Ipse
Duration: 22 minutes
Program Note
The seed for Those Flowers Were Sweet When I Pressed Them was planted in early 2024
with a measure of Froberger - the opening of an allemande, maybe - refashioned for cello.
That solo became a duo and then a trio before realizing in early 2025 that it was a quintet.
Like much of my recent work, it is written using a functional quarter-tone pitchspace
and nods back to moods and narratives from the past. Two contrasting ideas animate the
piece: an almost chaconne-like harmonic progression and a striving, Brahmsian melody.
Both develop through a quasi four-movement scheme during which one idea is confined to a
timespan and the other expands its timespan, before taking over completely. It continues
a series of abstract works I've written for piano and strings over my career that also
includes pieces for violin and piano, a piano trio, and a trio sonata.
The title comes from William Carlos Williams's poem "Asphodel", named for the Greek
flower of the afterworld. Both works touch on accumulated memories, preservation,
death and resurrection.
When I was a boy
I kept a book
to which, from time
to time,
I added pressed flowers
until, after a time,
I had a good collection.
.....
I bring you,
reawakened,
a memory of those flowers.
They were sweet
when I pressed them
and retained
something of their sweetness
a long time.
- William Carlos Williams
from 'Asphodel, That Greeny Flower'
Premiere:
Ensemble Ipse
Ben Grow, conductor
2 May 2026
Di Menna Center for Music
New York, New York
Listen
MIDI rendering available on request
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