Opus 1000

Flax-Golden Tales (2013)

for Storyteller and Chamber Orchestra

1.1.1.1/1.1.1.1/1perc/pno/string 5tet

Text by Erin Morgenstern

  • In tandem (Ricercare)
  • Ideas (Rondo)
  • Borne back ceaselessly into the past (Chaconne)
  • Fairy trap (Scherzo)
  • Where the sidewalk doesn’t end (Aria and Chorale)

Alecia Batson, storyteller; CLARET; Jeffrey Grossman, conductor

Duration: 13 min.

Dedication: for Joel Sachs and the New Juilliard Ensemble

Commission: Commissioned by the New Juilliard Ensemble

Contact the composer regarding perusal or performance materials.

Flax-Golden Tales (2013) is a work for storyteller and chamber orchestra with a text by the author Erin Morgenstern. Each of the five movements is based on a different brief story of only ten sentences and explores a different mood and tone.

Besides being reactions and complements to the stories, the movements also pursue their own musical identity, each being cast in a separate form: ricercare; rondo; chaconne; scherzo; aria and chorale.

The goal is an organic and equal synthesis of story and music, in which each adds an additional dimension to the other.