Program note

Rooms by the Sea is based on the painting of the same title by Edward Hopper.

The piece is in four distinct sections, the first three of which correspond literally to the composer’s impressions of three segments of the painting. The first section is inspired by the water texture that appears through the portal on the right of the painting. The second section is inspired by the shapes and textures of the front room in the painting, and the third section addresses the hidden room, a sliver of which appears at the left of the painting. The final section of the piece expresses a sense of longing for the seascape through the opening, which this viewer sees as the main focus of the painting.

A technical feature of the piece is the gradual transformation of the significance of the note E, which appears as a dissonant note in most of the piece, clashing with the music around it, but gradually becomes the consonant, stable center by the end of the piece. The piece concludes with a high and low sustained E simultaneously framing the brief reappearances of the water texture, as though the E itself is the window frame that doesn’t exist in the painting. The piece can be seen to represent a gradual process of coming to terms with the stark transition from room to water which is portrayed in the painting.

Performances

Commission, premiere, Yale Concert Band (conducted by Thomas C. Duffy), Woolsey Hall, Yale, 2010.