Green M!ntain Fugue
string quartet
Green Mountain Fugue
Instrumentation: String Quartet alternate version available with string quartet plus fute and oboe (or clarinet)
Duration: 11’00
Year: 2025
Program Note:
Green Mountain Fugue was commissioned by Julia, Heidi and Laurel Copeland in loving memory of their mother, Lynda Copeland.
I met the Copelands in 2022, when my husband Chris and I purchased a house in the town of Halifax, Vermont, population 759. I reached out to Laurel to join the Halifax Newsletter email list, and within two weeks, she and her husband John were having us over for dinner and introducing us to a spirited band of neighbors. is is, in some respects, the nature of small-town life, but it also deeply refects the warm ethos of the Copelands. ey say the apple does not fall far from the tree, and I have learned through countless stories that Lynda, who was 96 when I frst walked into Halifax, was very much the same, bringing people together, building community, and touching the hearts of everyone she met. She was a civil rights activist, regular contributor to the Brattleboro Reformer, and passionate supporter of the local music scene. If you haven’t been to Southern Vermont, “local music scene” might not conjure quite the right impression. I once spotted a signed photo of Isaac Stern in Lynda’s farmhouse, personally dedicated to her.
Lynda navigated the winding dirt roads of the green mountains in cars that sported what, to this music nerd, have to be two of the most badass license plates of all time. One read “JS BACH” and the other “FUGA.” With that in mind, I could think of no more ftting musical tribute for Lynda than a fugue. A fugue is a musical form that begins with the frst “voice” (represented by one or more instruments) introducing a melody, known as the “subject.” A second voice enters and picks up the subject, while the frst proceeds to a musical “answer.” A third voice then enters and we’re off! I crafted this four-voice fugue to represent Lynda and her three daughters. Lynda lives on through these three incredible women, community pillars and music lovers in their own right.
Above all, Green Mountain Fugue is a piece about family, love, and a tight-knit community in the rolling mountains of Southern Vermont