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About the Score

In this short Life was composed in the fall of 2017 while I was living in Walpole, NH. It was written for the inaugural Stephen Paulus Emerging Composer Competition and won The Capital Hearings 2018 Young Composers Competition. It is a setting of two short poems by Emily Dickinson:

In this short Life that only (merely) lasts an hour how much—how little—is within our power

and:

Look back on Time with kindly Eyes—

He doubtless did his best— How softly sinks his trembling Sun in Human Nature's West—

By repeating sections and creating an arch form, where the two poems are presented in order followed by the stanzas in reverse order (“In this short Life”, “Look back”, and “He doubtless” followed by “Look back” and finally “In this short Life”), I was able to extend the poems into a five-minute meditation focusing on the transience and preciousness of life and what one can (or can't) accomplish within it. Premiered Sept. 15, 2018 by The Capital Hearings in Washington, D.C. (Winner of The Capital Hearings 2018 Young Composers Competition)

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