D a v i d   V e s s

'Of Water and Light' was written for my friend and colleague Joe Herring, with whom I first crossed paths in a film scoring seminar at the University of Miami. Joe has given voice to several of my works over the years, and this piece is a small repayment of that generosity. The work draws on two of nature's most elemental forces — sunlight and water — and the restless interplay between them. Sunlight enters the music not as warmth but as brilliance: sharp, unexpected dissonances that flare up in the harmony like light refracting through a lens. The piano's shifting textures evoke the movement of water, fluid, mercurial, never truly settling into a single rhythmic feel for long. Against this constantly changing backdrop, the horn carries the melodic thread. The work is built from a collection of small, tightly wound ideas that cycle and return throughout, each time slightly transformed. The music drives forward with energy and momentum until it reaches a triumphant center: a cadenza in which the horn and piano enter into direct dialogue, the piano holding a steady, repeating figure beneath the horn's more expansive line. Afterwards, the familiar materials return, but they have been changed by having passed through the center of the work. The piece closes with an affirming statement from the piano, a grand cascade 'Of Water and Light'.