Water Walker
Trio for flute, viola and harp.
Duration: 6' 30"
Difficulty: 4/5 (Difficulty Rating Overview)
Listen on YouTube
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Flute, Viola & Harp
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PROGRAM NOTES
J.A.C. Redford
Water Walker is essentially an abstract piece of music, more impressionistic than programmatic. There were, however, a few recurring intuitive images that floated through my mind during the composition process, finally tossing up on the beach and suggesting the title. One was an impression of the cool white winter sun easing below the western horizon off the seaside California town of Corona del Mar, silhouetting seabirds like acrobats diving and dancing over the shining green curl of the waves. Another was a picture of Jesus, calmly traversing the whitecaps on the wind-buffeted Sea of Galilee to catch up with the boat bearing His dumbfounded friends. A third was the image of the apostle Peter, clambering out of the boat to meet him, and actually making it a few steps across the water before losing his confidence and starting to go down. "Why did you doubt?" says Jesus as he hoists him back up. I can't answer Jesus' question any better than Peter could. I suppose Water Walker was born of the same restless ambiguity, a mixture of the faith that drew Peter from the boat and the doubt that nearly drowned him.
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Water Walker was commissioned by Dan Raines and the Creative Trust through a program of the Pacific Composers Forum. It was premiered on 28 March 1993 in Los Angeles, CA by the Debussy Trio and recorded in 2015 for their 2017 CD Angles of Angeles. The recording was included by permission on the 2017 Plough Down Sillion Music CD Inside Passage.