Program Notes

I Ramble My Way Home is marked “A melodic poem for band” and does not adhere to a traditional form structure. Melodic themes appear and disappear, sometimes in fragments, sometimes in inversions and used as other parts of the building blocks of music. They move between instruments, and change harmonies frequently. The work stays still. The work moves forward. Only once does it keep its key center for more than one phrase. Despite being constructed of straightforward notes and rhythms, this is a piece of subtle difficulty.

I Ramble My Way Home was premiered by the Davis Senior High School Symphonic Band at Carnegie Hall.

From the composer: Mary Oliver was the first poet whose work made me appreciate poetry. The name comes from the last line of the Mary Oliver poem Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches. No work of art has ever made me consider the use of time like it has, and the writing of this piece came at a time when I was as overwhelmed as I had ever been. Oliver calls the reader to confront their mortality and use that to question what they want to do with their finite time on this earth. She asks us: “Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”

The piece is dedicated to my daughter, Ida Joy Hannum.