belongings (2026)
violin, percussion
c. 13 minutes
Percussion:
Vibraphone
3 metals pitched E3, C#4, G4 from your collection of metal instruments (as resonant as possible; do not have to be in tune)
1 wood block
Mallets: 2 bows, soft mallets, hard mallets
Commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory of Music for Emily Cornelius and Ross Karre, violin and percussion
Premiered by Emily Cornelius (violin) and Ross Karre (percussion)
Cleveland Museum of Art Ames Family Atrium, Cleveland, OH, 30 September 2026 (forthcoming)
Movements:
i. to all
ii. to each
iii. to the dance
iv. to the song
When I first met with Emily and Ross to discuss our collaboration, they spoke of reconnecting at various moments throughout their lives. Hearing them speak of these multiple moments of connection drew me to Wendell Berry’s poem “The Dance,” from New Collected Poems (2012), which depicts relationships that join, unjoin, and rejoin throughout time, like a dance. [Read Berry's poem here!] The movement titles of belongings (2026) come from two lines of this poem that describe these instances of reconnection.
The first movement, “to all,” unites the violin and vibraphone together in their bowed harmonies. The second movement, “to each,” sees each instrument attempting to pull away from the other in bouts of increased tension. The violin and percussion perform an off-kilter, energetic dance in the third movement, “to the dance,” and they reunite in a lyrical, meditative melody in the final movement, “to the song,” which gradually dissipates into silence.
At the end of his poem, Berry concludes that love changes over the passage of time, and that this transformation is natural and true. He celebrates those relationships—friends, romances, partnerships, familial bonds—that blossom through the dance of time, a celebration that persists into the four movements of belongings.
c. 13 minutes
Percussion:
Vibraphone
3 metals pitched E3, C#4, G4 from your collection of metal instruments (as resonant as possible; do not have to be in tune)
1 wood block
Mallets: 2 bows, soft mallets, hard mallets
Commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory of Music for Emily Cornelius and Ross Karre, violin and percussion
Premiered by Emily Cornelius (violin) and Ross Karre (percussion)
Cleveland Museum of Art Ames Family Atrium, Cleveland, OH, 30 September 2026 (forthcoming)
Movements:
i. to all
ii. to each
iii. to the dance
iv. to the song
When I first met with Emily and Ross to discuss our collaboration, they spoke of reconnecting at various moments throughout their lives. Hearing them speak of these multiple moments of connection drew me to Wendell Berry’s poem “The Dance,” from New Collected Poems (2012), which depicts relationships that join, unjoin, and rejoin throughout time, like a dance. [Read Berry's poem here!] The movement titles of belongings (2026) come from two lines of this poem that describe these instances of reconnection.
The first movement, “to all,” unites the violin and vibraphone together in their bowed harmonies. The second movement, “to each,” sees each instrument attempting to pull away from the other in bouts of increased tension. The violin and percussion perform an off-kilter, energetic dance in the third movement, “to the dance,” and they reunite in a lyrical, meditative melody in the final movement, “to the song,” which gradually dissipates into silence.
At the end of his poem, Berry concludes that love changes over the passage of time, and that this transformation is natural and true. He celebrates those relationships—friends, romances, partnerships, familial bonds—that blossom through the dance of time, a celebration that persists into the four movements of belongings.