Nocturne-Lullaby

Nocturne-Lullaby
Composed by Timothy Hagen
for Alto Flute and Piano
Published by Owl Glass Music
Includes score and alto flute part

About the Piece:
      Nocturne-Lullaby is a piece that began taking shape in the fall of 2016 after a conversation with my dear former teacher, Marianne Gedigian, Professor of Flute at The University of Texas-Austin. I had planned to write a piece for alto flute and piano for her, a fantasy on the song Groung by the Armenian composer Komitas. Life being what it often is, the project got away from me, and over the intervening years, we discussed alternate ideas for pieces based on our changing interests. However, I kept a sketch of the work I started on that piece.
      In March 2019, my mother suddenly died. The following months of mourning led me back to the idea of a piece for alto flute and piano. I returned to my earlier sketches for alto flute and piano and used them as the basis for Nocturne-Lullaby, transforming them into a brief fantasy on my mother's favorite thing I ever played as a young student, “Danny Boy.”
      This song is particularly appropriate, not only because it is sung from the point of view of a parent to their child, but also because my mother long ago requested I play it at her funeral, which I did. Fortunately, I had played it as an encore on a recital just a month earlier, with my mother in attendance. I will always be grateful that I was able to play it for her one last time before she died.
      Nocturne-Lullaby is a gift in memory of my mother for my mentor and friend, Marianne Gedigian, one of many mother-figures I have been so lucky to have in my life.