Harvey Sollberger

fl, guitar, 2vln, vla, vc flute, guitar, string quartet

Sollberger's Perhaps Gilead is inspired by the novels of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Marilynne Robinson (Iowa Writer's Workshop), which spring from her fictional Iowa town of Gilead. Relive the history and spirit of the great state of Iowa. Funded in part by The Iowa Arts Council, the new work by flutist-composer-conductor Harvey Sollberger has received more than 20 performances since it was completed in 2010. Detailed program note can be found here.
Composer's note:
Perhaps Gilead was written in 2010 for flute, guitar and string quartet.
Perhaps Gilead would not exist without the novels Gilead and Home by Marilynne Robinson. Ms. Robinson's gift for linking the everyday to the eternal shows us that life is here and now - here and now but also everywhere and everywhen in that our thoughts and deeds reach and reverberate far beyond our immediate surroundings and wildest imaginings. She reminds us of the distinguished history and implied promise (or is it a threat?) bound up in Ulysses S. Grant's dictum, "Iowa, shining star of radicalism", as her novels simultaneously depict our earthborne nature offset by our ability to hope and remember, dream and imagine. Hers is not an easy universe, but it is, coupled with our effort and attention, a redeemable one in which a field alight with flickering fireflies can evoke the smoldering earth: "well, it was and it is. An old fire will make a dark husk for itself and settle in on its core, as in the case of this planet. I believe the same metaphor may describe the human individual, as well. Perhaps Gilead. Perhaps civilization. Prod a little and the sparks will fly."