Composition

Notes

Composer Lee Hyla was a classmate of mine in the composition program at Stony Brook University in the 1970s. He died unexpectedly just a few months ago. This very short piece was written for cellist Beth Goldstein. I had the pleasure of being the second cellist to perform the piece, on my masters recital in 1978, and have played it several times since then. The mostly quiet surface (marked Very Slow, quarter = 40, with patience) masks a burning intensity which explodes into a sustained but brief climax, marked molto intenso, after which the piece quickly fades into the ether.
-Tom Flaherty