Downward Courses for piano solo
Duration: 8 minutes

Score
Audio (performed by Ryan Fogg)
Audio (performed by Stacey Barelos)


Liner notes from the Albany label CD (TROY1069):
     Downward Courses is a one-movement work modeled upon an A – B – A’ structure, the whole of which is preceded by a brief introduction; the work draws to a close with that which may be best described as a codetta. The form of Downward Courses is further enlivened by interjections of materials associated with section B in section A, and material associated with section A in section B.
     Section A itself continues quite seamlessly from the introduction and further unfolds procedures encountered in the opening bars of the piece. The many fragmented gestures of Section A are spelled off with pensive moments foreshadowing that which is to be more fully developed in the B section. The overall mood established in section A is compelling to the point of being mystical: sustained singleton pitches emerge out of the many driving rhythmic passages only to become mid–register linking events setting up for the next rushing arch, or "downward course." The fragmentary quality encountered at the surface, however, is dispelled at a deeper structural level, where particular sonorities are projected in an accretive sense over protracted spans of time and in the lowest register of the piano.
     Section B enteres at approximately the two–and–a–half–minute mark, and follows a transitional passage. The rhythmic pace is now noticeably slower than is the case in section A, and the dynamic gradient is much less pronounced. Rich chordal passages release into individual lines, which in their turn lead to two–voice wedges opening outward in contrary motion. A late flourish cross–referential to the beginning of Downward Courses leads to a retransition in advance of A’.
     The final third of the piece is marked by the return of swelling degrees of intensity, but specific embedded melodic lines hold in check the several energetic flourishes—each of which is underscored in dynamic and registral terms. A misplaced codetta, capped by a molto allargando and extended crescendo, is interrupted by one final pass at the principal defining material of section A. Downward Courses ultimately collapses into two zones of activity predicated upon specific sonorities, each expressed at unchanging pitch levels and linked by the common tone F: an F major triad; and a four–note derived chord comprising the pitches F – A flat – E – B flat.
     Downward Courses was written for the pianist Ryan Fogg (Director of Keyboard Studies at Carson–Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee) and was given its premier on October 15, 2006. The title of the composition is extracted from the end of verse one of "The Law that Marries all Things," a poem by the Kentuckian writer Wendell Berry (b. 1934).
          — Notes by Gregory Marion, The University of Saskatchewan

Performances

—February 21, 2008: Ryan Fogg (pf), Society of Composers, Inc National Conference (Atlanta)
—February 12, 2008: Matthew Edwards (pf), Composers, Inc. concert (San Francisco)
—November 16, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), Northwestern College (Orange City, IA)
—November 12, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), University of Iowa (Iowa City)
—October 23, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), Coe College (Cedar Rapids, IA)
—October 18, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
—October 12, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL)
—October 5, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), University of Wisconsin-Madison
—September 26, 2007: Stacey Barelos (pf), University of North Carolina, Charlotte
—September 25, 2007: Piedmont Community College (Charlotte, NC)
—March 6, 2007: Western Illinois University, New Music Festival (Macomb, IL)
—February 2, 2007: Ryan Fogg (pf), Clarke College, SCI Conference (Dubuque, IA)
—November 6, 2006: Ryan Fogg (pf), Samford University (Birmingham, AL)
—October 23, 2006: Ryan Fogg (pf), Carson-Newman College (Jefferson City, TN)
—October 16, 2006: Ryan Fogg (pf), University of Iowa (Iowa City)
—October 15, 2006: Ryan Fogg (pf), University of Iowa (Iowa City)
—October 2, 2006: Ryan Fogg (pf), Union University (Jackson, TN)