Program Notes
Madrigal is written in memory of the remarkable Les Thimmig, composer, virtuosic improviser and performer, musical architect, bold and gentle spirit, and my mentor and friend. It also pays homage to Luca Marenzio’s 1599 madrigal, “Solo e Pensoso,” based on “Sonnet XXXV” by Francesco Petrarca. Thimmig’s 1973 Arrhythmia, a dynamic, haunting work for wind ensemble, musically evokes Fellini’s Satyricon. In turn, Madrigal incorporates Arrhythmia’s “Mother Chord” and echoes Marenzio’s setting of the first two lines of the Petrarchan sonnet.
Solo e pensoso i più deserti campi
Vo misurando a passi tardi e lenti
Alone and pensive, the deserted fields
I measure with steps deliberate and slow
Les Thimmig’s autograph of “Mother Chord.”
Shared with the composer in 1973.
