Performed live on March 18th, 2025 as part of Christopher Keach's Faculty Recital, "Songs of Hope and Resilience."

Di Camera by Beth Wiemann

I. Focus

II. Steady

III. Jitter

Christopher Keach, trumpet

Marie-Élaine Gagnon, cello

Andrew Voelker, piano

Program Notes:

Beth Wiemann, 1959, was raised in Burlington, VT, studied composition and clarinet at Oberlin College and received her PhD in composition from Princeton University. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally by the ensembles Continuum, Transient Canvas, Earplay, Guerilla Opera, and others. Her compositions have won awards from the Orvis Foundation, Copland House, the Colorado New Music Festival, New York Treble Singers, and regional arts councils. She teaches clarinet, composition, and music theory at the University of Maine.

Di Camera was written in 2010 for her colleagues at UMaine, Jack Burt and Marisa Solomon, who also premiered the work. The movements of this piece depict four elements of camera work, Focus, Steady, Jitter, and Circling. Focus refers to the process of adjusting the lens to achieve optimal sharpness and clarity for the desired subject or area within the scene. This movement features sharp grace-note figures from the trumpet and cello with fast, rhythmic interludes from the piano. The second movement, Steady, introduces a slower melody which can highlight the nature of steadying a camera. Jitter, defined as the shaking of an image, brings the music to a more unstable sense of time featuring syncopation from all three musicians. Circling returns the music to a slower melody featuring segments from each movement.