Summer's Echo - EH/PN

Written for Carolyn Hove. This one-movement piece unfolds in ABA song form and is based on words and phrases from a pair of English poems. Shakespeare's Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day provides the content for the A section. Following a brief, four-measure introduction, the opening measures of he English horn melody spell out "Shall I? Shall I?" The heart of the piece, the B section, was inspired by one of the compose's favorite poems: the rhapsodic and bittersweet Echo by Christina Rossetti.