Daughter of the Light

It seems like I'm getting into a trend of writing one large work every year, then doing some smaller ones on the side. Last year, my large work was my flute choir suite, Daughter of the Light. In all, the piece took me almost a year to write. I especially struggled with the second movement, Muir Mhanainn Waltz, but as it often is with composing, the movement I struggled most with is also the one I like best. The piece was heavily influenced by Irish folk music. In fact, in an effort to emulate the music, I forced myself to only listen to Irish folk for an entire week when I started the first movement. It was my version of immersing myself in the music, since I don't have the means to actually visit Ireland in person.

The piece is dedicated to my fantastic girlfriend, Danielle Park. I began writing it before we started dating, but she inspired every bit of it. The piece is intended to be a combination of what our story has been and what I hope it will be. Although we've known each other for a few years, we didn't start dating until she came to Denver. So, the second movement is an allegory for our own love story; the Daughter of the Light leaves her home in the country (Danielle is from Woodland Park) and goes to the big city, finds a pauper boy who happens to play a fine bit of whistle if I do say so myself, they fall in love, and the rest is what I hope will happen some day.

On another note, the movements portray parts of nature as well as parts of Danielle's personality. In a sense, the first movement is about the autumn leaves fluttering around on the wind, but that concept represents Danielle's impulsive side. She often acts like that, which I've always loved because I'm the same way. The second movement is about the ocean, but also about her calm side. I've always thought of the constancy of the waves in the ocean as something very soothing and assuring, and Danielle has the same effect on me a lot of the time. Lastly, Áine's Reel is her confident side. In the poems, the Daughter of the Light finds this wonderful life and enjoys living it, and that's something Danielle has always been good at. In particular the inspiration for the third movement came from a very particular image in my mind when Danielle and I were sitting on a bus outside of Sydney. The bright, golden, Australian sun was streaming through the window, and she was in the midst of it with this really confident, satisfied, content sort of smile on her face. So, I took that image and found a concept which represented it well. Áine was a perfect candidate as an Irish goddess of love, summer, and wealth who is often associated with the sun.

I had always wanted the piece to be programatic, but I've never been good at writing out stories in prose, so I wrote poems for the program notes instead. Then, that evolved into a slide show of the poems in front of pictures I've taken around the world, which can be found here. For the world premier, the slide show was projected during the concert, and I hope to do that for performances of the piece whenever possible.

It's been a long process getting this piece done, and I'll admit there were many times when I really felt like just giving up on it and throwing it out, but now that I've heard it performed, I'm glad I didn't. I really enjoyed writing it and performing it, and I hope everyone out there enjoys listening to it.