McKay, Francis Thompson Website
of Washington, DC"Outstanding...beautifully evocative...some remarkable sounds." (Washington Post)
Each movement portrays one of the roles of Pegasus: as the steed of the Muses who transports poets during inspiration, as the winged mount of Bellerophon, and as a constellation in the northern sky. The Washington Post further describes Pegasus: "Mostly [the piece] exercises the flute's gift for simple song, but sometimes it calls for special effects, including the production of more than one note at a time or the sound of the wind in vast, open spaces."
Pegasus for Flute
7' $ 5.00 #040109 AP-719"multi-faceted...rhapsodic...a highly descriptive work."
(The Washington Post)There are three short movements: Morning/Invocation, Midday/Flight, and Night/Constellation.
Elegy in the Form of a Dream
for flute, violin, cello and piano
(performed from score) 12' $10.00 #040119 AP-729
"soul-shattering" (The Cape Codder)
"dropped like a plumb line into the emotional depths of awareness" (The Washington Post)The piece was completed in 1986, initiated by the death of a close friend of the composer, writer John Edward Hill. The music deals with the relationship between the external world, in which death is final, and the internal world, which transcends the limits of death and time. The tension and opposition between these two worlds is the subject of this composition. Dika Newlin describes the piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as follows:
"...expressionistic fantasy music, filled with strange rappings, thrumming inside the piano, [and] all manner of unexpected sounds designed to stimulate the imagination of the listener."
River Time (text by William Styron)
for 2-part children’s chorus, mixed chorus (SATB, flute, percussion and harp
10' 040016 AP-516A $15.00 percussion and harp, #040016 AP-516B $11.00
Parts may be duplicated as needed.
Improviser of piano accompaniments for silent films at the National Gallery, former student of Nadia Boulanger with a doctorate from Peabody Conservatory, faculty member at Georgetown University, Theory Chair at the Levine School of Music, composer member and former program director of the Contemporary Music Forum's Corcoran Gallery concerts, Frances Thompson McKay has a rich and varied career in music.
Besides Pegasus for Flute, Elegy in the Form of a Dream and River Time, published by Arsis Press, she has written works ranging from SummerVerses--The Book of Ruth, for soloists, chorus and chamber ensemble to her light-hearted Nursery Rhymes written for her three-year-old twins to texts of Beatrix Potter. She has also written a history of women's music in Virginia from 1607-1984 entitled Virginia's Voices.
Quotes by Women of Note |