Dwindling Twilight

for bass clarinet and bassoon

This piece was written for an elementary school teacher of mine that passed away from cancer during my senior year of undergrad. Her name was Sharon Yeiter, and she was a wonderfully inspiring woman who gave all she had to her students, and never considered giving up on anyone. She was one of the biggest forces in my life at the time to get me reading, and was always full of new ideas to make it fun and interesting for me to do so. Some years later, I ended up attending high school with her daughter, Tara, where I saw Mrs. Yeiter at every choir concert that I attended.

I attended her memorial service, and met up with a lot of people that I had not seen in years, including Tara. Seeing all the people that Sharon had influenced through her life, I felt a push from within to take the sorrow and despair that I had been feeling, and turn them into a memorial piece to help mourn her loss, yet retain all the greatness that she had embodied. Dwindling Twilight is a serene piece written for bassoon and bass clarinet that deals with my emotions towards passing of a remarkable person.