A Region Lovelier Far

My new orchestral work is a poem about my native area in East Texas. The textural and acoustic sound-world is born of the tangled woods and shaded creeks of the Big Thicket. My musical lines teem with voices from my family and my past: the strange ecstatic blend of gospel and honky-tonk I heard as a child in our rural Pentecostal church (where my father led the singing and I played trumpet), the high fervent singing of my backwoods Baptist grandmother and other kinfolk, as well as the songs and folklore of the Big Thicket, still resonant with old Scots-Irish roots. My primary aesthetic models are literary, in particular William Faulkner, who so admirably balanced modernism and unique sense of place. As far as form goes, I have no preconceived notions when I begin a piece. As Flannery O’Connor said, “You don’t dream up a form and put the truth in it. The truth creates its own form.” All I can say for now is that I plan to have a grand old time bringing this piece to life, and I hope to fill it with all the beauty and humor it can hold. And I thank my wife in advance for her patience.