Serenity Meditation (2011)

"Serenity" (1919) is one of my favorite songs by Charles Ives, and one of the rare pieces in his output in which his mysticism achieved the state of a timeless continuum. I've always regretted its brevity, and the two perfunctory chords that bring it to a premature conclusion. One day it occurred to me to take the song's material and stretch it out over a longer period of time. I also added in a few motives from his last composed song, "Sunrise" (1926), which has a similarly aimless feel, and a phrase from "General William Booth Enters into Heaven." I like to think I extracted what was Feldman-like from Ives's most Feldmanesque pieces, and turned it into something Gannian. The piece is dedicated to my colleague in Ives enthusiasm, Neely Bruce, and I wrote it after he invited me to give the keynote address to a festival of Ives's songs.

Instrumentation: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, solo horn, chimes, timpani, celesta, strings

Duration: 13 minutes

World premiere: October 19, 2012, Bowling Green State University New Music Festival, conducted by J.J. Pearse

Further performances: Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov, May 22-24, 2025

"The work is slow and hypnotic, with delicate dissonances, opening with a quiet percussion pattern and featuring a prominent celeste part... Above this ostinato, waves of slow, static strings and woodwinds enter and fade out. Themes in cellos and horn migrate to second violins and violas, then to a flute solo... Percussion added bells in the middle and again at the end, while exposed passages in flute and oboe rose and fell over Gann's gentle waves in this pleasantly intricate work."
- Stuart Cheney in Texas Classical Review

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