Dust and Roses (orchestra version) (2005) · 11 min (in seven movements)
for Narrator (optional) and Orchestra
flute, guitar, harp, narrator (optional), strings
Settings of poems by Paul A. De Ritis; this orchestral arrangement is dedicated to Miles Fish
Program Note
Dust and Roses was originally a setting of fourteen poems from Paul A. De Ritis’s collection of poetry with the same title, for guitar, viola and narrator; first performed by Apostolos Paraskevas (guitar), Anthony De Ritis (viola), and Del Lewis (narrator), at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, on June 11, 2002. This was followed by a version for flute, harp and viola, written for the 2ème Festival de Musique de Sancerre at the invitation of Jacques Dubois, violinist, conductor, and director of the Festival of Music in Sancerre, France, where it was first performed by Stèphane Limonaire (flute), Danielle Riegel (harp), and Anthony De Ritis (viola), at the L’Église Notre-Dame de Sancerre on August 11, 2002.
Dust and Roses, orchestral version, can be performed with or without narrator, and is in seven short movements. The poems and their titles are listed below:
I. There is a shimmering dawn
II. Come sweet yellow bird
III. Down sorrow cloaked streets
IV. A lament of glass violins
V. Like a swan against moonbeams
VI. Walk with me
VII. Won’t you play?
The orchestral version was first performed in 2005, for narrator (optional) and orchestra by The Civic Symphony of Benton County, under the direction of Miles Fish, at the Bentonville Arend Arts Center, Bentonville, Arkansas, May 9, 2005.
Recordings
Dust and Roses, orchestral version, was recorded by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) under the baton of Gil Rose at Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, June 4, 2013.