Avery’s Waltz (2017)

Instrumentation: Violin & Piano

Difficulty: Advanced

Duration: 4’

Performance Materials (PDF format): $15.00

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My niece Avery was born in February 2017, and her birth had a profound effect on me. The second I got home from the hospital, I began writing this piece as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband, and no piece I've ever written has had the same engulfing effect on me as this one. I don't remember actually writing the piece, but rather I sat down at my piano and before I knew it, it existed.

I believe this is the most honest and tender work I have ever composed. The instrumentation of violin and piano, to me, reflects the intimacy of marriage and birth. The piece opens with a simplistic melody in the piano, quickly joined by the violin. The two parts intertwine and intersect, painting a picture of two lives weaved into one. Midway through, the piece stops to reflect on the perfection of love and family, and concludes with a restatement of the main theme, but faster and in a new key to represent the joy and excitement in the promise of new life.

Avery's Waltz is dedicated to my sister Madelyn, her husband Tim, and their beautiful daughter Avery. I wish them all the happiness in the world and it's been a privilege to watch them grow together and create something beautiful.