Summer Solstice (2007) for piano was written for and is dedicated to pianist and composer Jeffrey Jacob. The work opens in a free, declamatory manner—announcing its basic material. Spasmodic gestures intercut the resonant declamation. Amidst the bright ringing, a lyric melody tries to assert itself again and again. A whirling and dry fast section, however, emerges; the material is put through a series of spinning transformations, building to a ringing and clangorous climax—bathed in the white heat of the summer sun. The final section is marked “memorial candles”—distant and near candles set out on a field flicker in the summer heat and ebbing sunlight while low, distant chimes sound the passing of time. The candles slowly burn out—one by one—in the heat of the summer air.