Suite for Nathalie (2004) was composed in the months prior to Nathalie's birth. I had purchased a small manuscript book / journal with a nice binder at a book store in NYC, and started making notes. I had the idea of a nine movement suite, a movement for each month of gestation.
The suite is dedicated to my wife, Colleen Kelly Law, and is a gift for my daughter, Nathalie Maeve Borden.
A few notes about the music... Many of the movements are composed in a conscious effort to emulate the style of Robert Schumann, especially his Kinderszenen. The opening movement's A section begins harmonically with an echo of the opening four chords of The Poet Speaks, the final movement of the Kinderszenen. The final movement of the suite, Birth, is inspired by Traumerei, and alludes to it rhythmically as well as in its insistent exploration of the same motive through a varying harmonic prism. Most of the other movements are also in the harmonic and rhythmic spirit of the Kinderszenen, except for the Prayer, which is Brahmsian in its harmonic and melodic conception, and Kicks and Jubilation, which are not quite in the Schumann style harmonically. Labor, in my mind, is the weakest compositionally, and I hope to someday rewrite it, perhaps adding a contrasting section to fill it out and give it more substance. Overall, I'm very pleased with the piece, and hope that my family and others will enjoy it, and sense the deep love that inspired it.
My good friend Saine Hsu made this beautiful performance at the Ethical Society in Philadelphia in 2009, and my good friend Ye Zhang did the sound engineering.