Written at the request of Dr. Todd Hastings and the trumpet students of his studio, Fanfare was composed for the Commencement ceremonies of the College of Arts and Sciences at Pittsburg State University, in Pittsburg, Kansas, on 17 May 2002.

JCR

Canisius College Composer-In-Residence Persis Parshall Vehar was commissioned to write THE INEVITABLE DAWN by the Cheektowaga Symphony Orchestra, John Landis, Conductor, for their Centennial Concert on March 31, 1996.

THE INEVITABLE DAWN is written in what the composer refers to as "circular form." This form is based on circular thinking which concerns itself with many ideas at once. The piece has three ideas that develop simultaneously, often overlapping each other. At the conclusion, the motive, stated in the 1st measure, turns into a hymn, 'Now Thank We All Our God,' and is combined with the other two fully developed themes.

In The Buffalo News, Lynna Sedlak wrote, "Progressing from a hushed string and wood block entrance, bits of tunes interject throughout the reed and brass sections. They eventually coalesce into an extended theme. Finally the hymn tune 'Now Thank We All Our God,' well-sustained by the trombone section, wells up within the theme. Dawn is fully realized in a densely chorded ending.

As described in the title, there is inevitability to the development that is no less spectacular for its expectation. There is a spiritual content in this celebration that Vehar integrates naturally. It never seems superimposd... the climax was all it should be, full and balanced."

I had thought of calling this piece simply "Winter." But as often happens, when I compose music, so many things come to mind-peculiar states of feeling, events, and people that I wish to commemorate in some manner-that when it comes time to naming the work, I seek a word or phrase that attempts to capture all that writing the piece has brought before my mind's eye. This time, I turned to mythology to give aid.

Ceres, the Roman goddess of spring and the fruitful earth (the Greek Demeter) had a daughter, Proserpine who loved to wander about the nether regions of the earth in Pluto's realm. One of Pluto's enemies persuades the boy Cupid to shoot one of his love-poisoned arrows at Pluto while Proserpine is wandering nearby. The arrow hits its mark and Pluto, enamored with Ceres' daughter, makes her his wife. Meanwhile, the despondent mother searches the world for her beloved Proserpine. Discovering her captive in Pluto's kingdom, she demands her return, for it is law among the gods that no one could be compelled to stay in Pluto's inhospitable realm unless they eat of the fruit therein. As it happens, Proserpine had eaten: she had sucked on a few pomegranate seeds. Since she had not eaten an entire fruit but only part, a compromise was reached: Proserpine would only stay part of the year, returning to her mother's springtime realm for the remainder. Hence, while her daughter fulfills her annual obligation to dwell part of the year with Pluto, Ceres pines for her daughter, and the fruitful earth grows cold, the days grow shorter, and trees give up their leaves until Proserpine returns again.

Also, as a nod to my youthful fascination with Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. I used the French title in order to acknowledge indirectly my quotation of the Tristan chord-the ha1f-diminished seventh chord. Ceres' sorrow over her loss and Tristan's over his honorable separation from his beloved reminded me of a lost love of my own. And since I composed most of this work during the fall and winter of 2002 it occurred to me how fittingly the ancients saw in winter the expression of sorrow.

Surrender to Another is an expression of the act of love, a process in which the individual relinquishes, submits, and surrenders their self to the good of the other, through devotion, adoration, esteem, and intimacy, often resulting in profound emotional and spiritual states ranging from longing to contentment to rapture.

At the beginning of August of 1999 a three-week lull presented itself for the composing of Surrender to Another. This followed a trip to the Czech Republic, where the Moravian Philharmonic recorded my Fantasy for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, and wanderings through Vienna and Salzburg for leisure and stimulation. In addition, the music is a tribute to the aesthetics of late Romanticism, especially to Mahler, early Schoenberg, and Strauss.

The decision to write a large work for ten string parts, dividing each section of the traditional string orchestra, did not result from my usual practice of composing for specific performers. The long lyric melodies, opulent harmonies, textures laden with accented dissonances and counter-melodies, intense emotional expression, and aesthetic quality had been resonating in me for years. For a change I wrote something strictly for myself.

PS

IN CELEBRATION was commissioned by Edwin H. Wolf for his wife Judith to celebrate their wedding anniversary. It was premiered at the opening of the newly renovated Rockwell Concert Hall, State University of New York College at Buffalo on October 19, 1987. The performers were Composer/Piano Persis Parshall Vehar and the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra (members of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra string section), Marylouise Nanna, Conductor.

The Buffalo News Music Critic Herman Trotter wrote, "Vehar's 'In Celebration' is a concertino for piano and orchestra whose three movements are titled Joy, Romance and Exultation. It made a very good first impression. The interest sustained throughout... the piano was played by the composer, who imparted infectious rhythmic and celebratory energy to the performance of this rippling, rolling music. The Romance movement seemed built on a long decrescendo, with a rather measured, treading undercurrent, and after the finale's long introduction with piano flourishes, the music seems to dance all around the expression of exultation we expect from the title before really coming to grips with it at the end."

Centennial (2003) was written for the brass and percussion performers of Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas, at the request of Professor Stella Hastings. It was intended to help commemorate the first Festival of New Music, an idea that she persuaded me of in 2002.

Centennial was completed on February 2, 2003, the day the space shuttle Columbia broke up reentering the Earth's atmosphere and all seven crew members perished. For me, this work also commemorates those seven, and the relentless spirit of exploration they embodied. May that spirit live on.

JCR