Live performance by Sharon Harms, the Conference Ensemble, and Matilda Hofman at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, NH in August 2025.

ON THE INTERLOCKING OF HANDS (2025)
for solo soprano voice and small ensemble

Fl. Trb. Vla. Cb. Perc. Pno or Fl. Cl (dbl. BCl). Vla. Cb. Perc. Pno** (version in progress)

*Percussion List: Crotales, Vibraphone, Two Wood Blocks, Two Suspended Cymbals, Sandpaper Blocks (or something of a similar texture), Tom Drum, Bass Drum, Tam-Tam

**Version with trombone preferred.

TEXT
The park is filled with night and fog, 
  The veils are drawn about the world, 
The drowsy lights along the paths 
  Are dim and pearled.

Gold and gleaming the empty streets, 
  Gold and gleaming the misty lake, 
The mirrored lights light sunken swords, 
  Glimmer and shake.

Oh, is it not enough to be 
Here with this beauty over me?
My throat should ache with praise, and I 
Should kneel in joy beneath the sky. 
Oh, beauty, are you not enough?

Why am I crying after love 
With youth, a singing voice and eyes
To take earth’s wonder with surprise?
Why have I put off my pride, 
Why am I unsatisfied, 
I for whom the pensive night
Binds her cloudy hair with light,
I for whom all beauty burns 
Like incense in a million urns? 
Oh, beauty, are you not enough? 
Why am I crying after love?

- SPRING NIGHT by Sara Teasdale

Written for the Fromm Foundation Composers Conference. First performance by soloist Sharon Harms, the Conference Ensemble (Barry Crawford, flute; Mike Lombard, trombone; Louise Schulman, viola; Greg Chudzik, bass; Mike Truesdell, percussion; Steven Beck, piano), and conductor Matilda Hofman at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, NH in August 2025.

Duration: ca. 17 minutes

PERFORMANCES
Soloist Sharon Harms, the Conference Ensemble (Barry Crawford, flute; Mike Lombard, trombone; Louise Schulman, viola; Greg Chudzik, bass; Mike Truesdell, percussion; Steven Beck, piano), and conductor Matilda Hofman premieres on the interlocking of hands at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, NH in August 2025.