Bassoon

3 movements: Pixie Dance, Magic Forest, and Sprites. The first movement is a spirited, playful forest scene which employs contrasting metric feels simultaneously The Second evokes a mysterious nocturnal ambience with an overlapping of ethereal long tones and echoes. The third is quick and dance-like. Utilizing a 4-note scale, its colorful, rhythmic melodies are juggled among the 4 instruments Learn More

with Piano

This piece for bassoon and piano was written for my daughter, Megan Potter, for her Senior Recital in Bassoon in 2002. As I tend to write “concept” pieces, this Sonata was designed to be very personal and to revolve around my daughter and our immediate family.

The first movement depicts the “happy family” of her childhood, when we were all together. The second movement expresses some of the tender feelings she was then having for the young man whom she eventually married.

The third movement is one of my “Matthew” movements. I find that I often have my son in mind when I write some of my most cheerful and lively pieces and this one displays a certain jauntiness and irrepressible jocularity that Matthew always had as a young child. 

Notes by Barbara York

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Was composed during 2009, a time when The Great Recession held its powerful grip much of the world, and uncertainty continued to build within American society. There was a general sense that the prosperity of the past may never return, and that the future may bring even more hardships. As the seemingly endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wore on, many did not expect peace to return in the foreseeable future. Yet, life went on. The music of Turbulent Times suggests the ebb and flow of the intense uncertainty felt by many with the more pleasant aspects of everyday life. Following the lyrical and plaintive introduction, stormy passages give way to sections of relative tranquility, only to reappear. Learn More