Another Heaven
for string orchestra

Work no. 241
2023

Another Heaven opens with the second violins playing a long melody, after which the rest of the orchestra comes in, and tries, several times, to recreate that melody. They're trying to build from little fragments of the original rhythm, occasionally hitting a succession of seemingly the right notes, but the melody eludes them. After a series of attempts, their best result is heard in the cellos and the basses, but it too fails to capture the essence of the original. It's almost the end of the piece – for a brief moment at the very end, the second violins remain alone again, building towards a fortissimo, possibly to finally play a reprise of the opening – but just then, everything stops.

Like The Deliverer and The Redeemer, this work has a title which may sound spiritual, but isn't. In this case, the title comes from a quote by William Beebe (1877–1962), an American naturalist:

The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer, but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again.