Quick View
Scoring & Instrumentation
sm orch 2-2-2-2,1-1-2-1,timp, cym, s dr, str
Alternate Title
ELEGY
Year Authored (or revised)
-
Duration (min)
-
Movements
-
Files & Media
Audio
-
Video
-
Sample Pages
-
Detail
Description
-
First Perfomance
-
Recording
NWCRL159 (CRI recording from 1960 now available on CD from New World Records, 2010
Text Language - Non English
-
Text Source/Author
-
Title Number
Ensemble Type
orchestra
Genre/Theme
-
Instrument
-
Purchase Options
The beauty of Goodenough’s Elegy (1960) is in the combination of a steadiness of pulse and a fluidity of essentially undeveloped melody. (There is not a break of sound in the piece!) The melodic conception is of modal line, stemming from a minor triad and moving within
characteristically small tonal areas. Between cadential punctuation, the melodic seed mounts sequentially in luscious appogiaturas, intensifies to a climax with the timbre of cymbals, and recedes to unison. The result is both frustrating and peaceful—the effect somewhat mystical.
—Notes by MARTHA GERHART (Original liner notes from CRI LP jacket)