"Aromatic Breezes," Trio #3 for violin, clarinet and piano.

...  By 2007, when I was 57, I was ready to write what is perhaps my most ‘exotic’ piece, “Memories of Corsica.”

When the world-traveling Verdehr Trio asked me to write a piece for them, they suggested that I might find inspiration in memories of exotic places I have visited.

Corsica, I thought!  The jagged mountains, an “Arizona” landscape surrounded by the amazingly blue Mediterranean, the sleepy stone villages, the crumbling watchtowers where Genoan guards kept watch for pirate raids, the pristine beaches, the vast chestnut forests, the peppery wine, the strong, sheep’s milk cheese, the salads laced with bacon from wild boars, grown fat foraging chestnuts, topped with a hot, fried, fresh egg.

My most salient memory of the place is the aroma that pervades when hot, dry breezes fling about the scents of the herbs that grow everywhere in wild profusion -- oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme.  Not just in the village herb gardens, mind you, but literally everywhere, wild, right along the roadsides.  Sailors at sea, they say, can sometimes smell that extraordinary fragrance on the breeze, fully forty miles downwind!  Think of it!  To sense the presence of a island, not through the eyes, no!  But rather through the nose!

I’ve wandered that strange, timeless and enchanting island twice, awestruck, for five days both times and I hope to return again someday.  I’ve read its sad, noble, fascinating history.  When I settled down to write music about that beautiful place I remembered the Corsicans I’d met, proud and fierce, yet quick to laugh.  I remembered the intense, dry heat and my nearly desperate thirst when I foolishly set out on a hike with too little water.  But most powerfully and vividly, I remembered that fragrance.

There are three movements; the first and third are entitled “Arid Heat” and “Ardent Souls.”  I’ll share those another time.  Today I’m sharing the middle movement, "Aromatic Breezes.”

To hear the Verdehr Trio play "Aromatic Breezes," from my Trio #3 for violin, clarinet and piano (as featured on the CD entitled “Pastorale”) click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/corsica_breezes.mp3

To see a PDF of the score, click here:
http://www.sowash.com/recordings/mp3/corsica_breezes.pdf