Winter Solstice in Arborea String Duet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1958118

Winter Solstice in Arborea is my first work written for the hurdy-gurdy and violin. In fact, it's the first piece I have ever written to feature the hurdy-gurdy.

The piece premiered in December, 2025 at the Celtic Christmas concert at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Laconia. A program presented and curated by their music director, the venerable and highly feared Noelle Beaudin. It was written in the weeks before the concert. Noelle Beaudin, who not only leads the choir, accompanies the choir, and manages the musical productions at UUSL, performed on the piano as well as the hurdy-gurdy for this concert. This was the first project that the two of us took on together and it was the beginning of a profound partnership between the two of us. We went on to form the musical duo 'RamaLisa' as well as founding the 'Squam Ridge School of Music'.

Noelle Beaudin and Max Enloe helped to guide me towards what the hurdy-gurdy could and couldn't do, including specifics about the instrument that she was using (there is a lot of variation between different luthiers in terms of design, tuning, accessible notes, etc). I tested the boundaries of the instrument a bit, treating it as more of a versatile classical performance instrument rather than a fixed-drone folk instrument. That is why this piece has many changing drone and trompette strings throughout with structural moments of solo violin to allow the changes. There are still long sections in the piece where a drone is consistently sounding which gives it the folk-like feeling throughout. In this way, perhaps it feels as if the listener or subject of the composition is wandering through different scenes. These scenes often remind me of travelling through a windy, winter storm where snow makes it cold, biting, and difficult to see what is ahead. There are also moments of warm, dancing, as though in a cozy tavern seeking relief from the storm.

At the live premiere performance of the work, we played a game with the audience whereby three possible titles were presented to the audience for those in attendance to vote on which title they liked most. The options were Burn the Polyester Sweater, Lost in a Snowglobe and of course the winning title Winter Solstice in Arborea. The YouTube video of this piece is a live recording from the premiere performance.