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Premiere: May 14, 2018

Nature the Ever Repeating

Choral, SATB, piano, and violin
Words by, Nicholas Spiva (1989-2014)

My family and I were gifted with a framed poem written by my nephew Nicholas Spiva for Christmas 2016. While my nephew had already been the subject of a couple of my compositions, I was drawn to his poem and immediately thought about setting it for choir.

After speaking with his wife and mother and getting the go ahead, I started work on the piece. I wanted it to be something special since my nephew, himself, had been so special to me. Since this piece focused on nature and the cosmos, I tried hard to reflect that with not only the voices but the accompaniment as well. The vocal parts start off with a Fibonacci sequence. The vocal and instrumental parts work together to show the “ever repeating” parts of nature. Nicholas was incredibly supportive of my work, and I wanted to write a piece that would have made him proud.

Nicholas Spiva (1989-2014) was a senior physics major at Florida Institute of Technology where he worked as a research assistant in the Geospace Physics Laboratory. He was preparing for graduation and graduate school when his life was tragically cut short in a motorcycle crash. He was passionate about science and had co-authored an article published in the journal Nature. He even created his own tattoo design that depicted Pi to 30 numbers. He loved life and spending time with his wife, family, and friends. Occasionally, in his spare time, he wrote poetry. His subjects were often some aspect of science as with “Nature the Ever Repeating.” Nick was honored with a weather balloon launch from Florida Institute of Technology at his “graduation from life.”

Run Time and Level

This piece runs at about 4 minutes and 10 seconds. It was written for a High School ensemble.

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Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash