• May 15, 2015

David Sampson – New work for Trumpet and Piano Trio

David Sampson’s new work Memories To Keep Awhile for trumpet/flügelhorn, violin, violoncello and piano has it’s world premiere performance on August 7th, 2015 at the 2015 Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville.  Composer David Sampson will be attendance at the premiere performance with artists David Elton (trumpet/flügelhorn), Dimity Hall (violin), Julian Smiles (violincello), and David Selig (piano).

MEMORIES TO KEEP AWHILE

 for

Trumpet/Flügelhorn, Violin, Violoncello and Piano

David Sampson – composer

David Sampson’s new work, Memories To Keep Awhile for trumpet/flügelhorn, violin, violoncello and piano was commissioned by and written for David Elton, with the generous support of Janet Holmes a Court, and Dr. Eileen Ong,  for premiere at the 2015 Australian Festival of Chamber Music.

The title was taken from a label that my mother had placed on a box of photographs of my family when I was growing up in South Carolina and Virginia.  She passed away a few years ago leaving me with all of the family’s historical documents.  It has been my responsibility to examine all of these photographs, slides, newspaper articles and films to decide what to keep and what to throw away.  I am the family historian for my generation.  My guess is that many of you have done this already and most of you will experience this in your lifetime.  What I have found was that it stirred up a tremendous amount of varied emotions.  I also found that when I saw the rather self-effacing label that my mother created for one of the boxes, I smiled at her wonderful attitude.  She was correct in the observation that these cherished memories are cherished by only a few presently and will be only a curiosity to future generations.

Memories To Keep Awhile is divided into four movements which I call “photos” with the third and fourth “photo” played attacca, that is, without pause.  I choose not to describe the actual photos, instead, allowing your imagination to create your own.  The work is an attempt to aurally depict a small portion of what my familys’ lives have meant to each other.