Sun Dance

Sun Dance was written to evoke a general feeling of bright joy and was later found to present a more specific impression of a sun-drenched town festival, with various groups of townspeople walking, dancing, sitting in small groups, and generally enjoying the day. The work’s essentially motivic construction is evident throughout, as the song-like and dance-like characteristics are heard in various instruments —- beginning with the solo oboe, responded to by dance rhythms in mellow tones, and continuing through a more lush, lyrical passage at the center of the arch form.

Program note by Dr. Brian Casey, with credit to the composer