Pastorale

In the tradition of Charles Ives and other American composers, Pastorale borrows a tune from the Revolutionary War Era by William Billings as its source material. The tune, Chesterfield, was published in Billings’ 1770 collection, The New England Psalm Singer, and contains no text, though presumably written for choir. While the tune is heard briefly in Pastorale, the piece is more an exploration of the harmonic half-step found near the end of Billings’ setting that was highly irregular for its time. The still nature of a farm pasture is heard in these long semitones, present at the beginning and throughout much of the piece. A gentle breeze is heard as a descending arpeggiated triad. More dissonant sections represent the hardships of farm-life.