Two Devotions — in memoriam Mary Oliver
For baritone saxophone and piano
Video features Kaleigh Wilder (baritone saxophone) and Michael Malis (piano)
Premiered at Strange Beautiful Music XII, September 2019.
We shake with joy
We shake with grief
What a time these two have, housed as they are in the same body
-Mary Oliver
When I read this beautiful poem in the summer of 2019, it immediately arrested my attention. I was drawn to its inherent contradiction — the idea that we can be simultaneously full of joy and full of grief. Furthermore, the poem seems to assert that that contradiction is not only possible, but necessary: that living this contradiction is an integral component of the human experience. With Two Devotions, I sought to write a piece that captured these two opposing dispositions.
Movement 2, We Shake With Joy, is an exuberant and joyful dance. Employing techniques such as hand claps and other percussive effects, both players are almost constantly playing as the music becomes increasingly ecstatic. The result is a trance-like groove that persists onward throughout the entire piece, morphing subtly as the tonality shifts incrementally. My hope was to capture a feeling of a cup overflowing; of abundance; of pure and real joy.