a tree, a salt shaker, a house (2026)
flute, piano
c. 7 minutes
Commissioned by International Contemporary Ensemble/The Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project
Premiered by Laura Cocks (flute) and Erika Dohi (piano) of the International Contemporary Ensemble
Louise Shonk Kelly Recital Hall, Dublin, NH, 10 July 2026
On the morning of May 16, 1874, the Mill River dam of western Massachusetts collapsed, and a forty-foot wall of water rushed at the four towns below. One of those towns was Haydenville, Massachusetts, where I grew up. All elementary-age students in Haydenville learn about the Mill River Flood, visiting the site of the former dam and discovering the objects that remained after the flood.
I recently came across the short art projects, poems, and stories that this year’s third graders created based on artifacts from the flood, and their stories became the inspiration for a tree, a salt shaker, a house (2026). I was struck by the intimacy of the objects they described—a floating dress, a child’s single boot, a brass medal—and was especially drawn to the image of a salt shaker that ran out of salt not because of shared meals but because of flood waters dissolving the salt it once contained. In this piece, the flute loosely traces the journey of the salt shaker from a household object to a memento of the flood, and the piano ripples below the surface. After a quick climax, we are left with the aftermath of what came before. The music turns still, but in that stillness there is also hope.
c. 7 minutes
Commissioned by International Contemporary Ensemble/The Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project
Premiered by Laura Cocks (flute) and Erika Dohi (piano) of the International Contemporary Ensemble
Louise Shonk Kelly Recital Hall, Dublin, NH, 10 July 2026
On the morning of May 16, 1874, the Mill River dam of western Massachusetts collapsed, and a forty-foot wall of water rushed at the four towns below. One of those towns was Haydenville, Massachusetts, where I grew up. All elementary-age students in Haydenville learn about the Mill River Flood, visiting the site of the former dam and discovering the objects that remained after the flood.
I recently came across the short art projects, poems, and stories that this year’s third graders created based on artifacts from the flood, and their stories became the inspiration for a tree, a salt shaker, a house (2026). I was struck by the intimacy of the objects they described—a floating dress, a child’s single boot, a brass medal—and was especially drawn to the image of a salt shaker that ran out of salt not because of shared meals but because of flood waters dissolving the salt it once contained. In this piece, the flute loosely traces the journey of the salt shaker from a household object to a memento of the flood, and the piano ripples below the surface. After a quick climax, we are left with the aftermath of what came before. The music turns still, but in that stillness there is also hope.