Monadnock is the name of a famous 3,165-foot mountain in New Hampshire. While a resident of the MacDowell Colony in 1995, I climbed to the top of it, and ran back down to the bottom. After climbing a mountain, one’s life is not the same as before.

As an isolated rock mass rising above a plain, it inspired the Western Abenaki Indians to give the mountain its name which means “standing alone.”. The title of this piece might also be read, therefore, as “verses from standing alone.” The work is simultaneously a document of my experience with that mountain, and a metaphor for my journey through life and poetry.

Each of the work’s four movements is directly related to a poem of Rainer Maria Rilke.

The piece was written for my friend and colleague, composer/clarinetist Derek Bermel.