Journey of a Dragonfly

Written: 2005-06/2023-24
Duration: ca. 28'
for orchestra (3 (dbl Pic.), 3 (dbl Eng. Hn.), 3 (dbl Bass Cl.), 3 (dbl C-bsn.); 4,3,3,1; timp +3; hp; kybd (dbl celeste); strings)
Written for JoAnn Falletta and Mostly Modern Orchestra in honor of Mostly Modern Festival’s fifth season
World Premiere: Mostly Modern Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, conductor, Mostly Modern Festival, Arthur Zankel Music Center, Helen Filene Ladd Concert Hall, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, June 21, 2024.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

Sheet Music Available September 1, 2025

PROGRAM NOTE (In-Progress)

As a child, my parents vacationed at a summer cottage in Maine by a small lake. Often by myself, I would sit on a giant boulder and watch the lake and the wildlife for hours.

One day, a beautiful bright-winged dragonfly flew across the lake and hovered before me. I was startled and intrigued: its long, slender blue body glistened in the sunlight. Finally, it began to fly around the perimeter of the lake. It stopped every few minutes and hovered in place, almost as if waiting for me to follow it. I followed the dragonfly until sunset, imagining a world in which only the dragonfly existed, on its own terms, within its own world.

Years later, I hiked around the Niagara Gorge near Niagara Falls and explored Devil’s Hole Park. There is an opening on the side of a cliff called Devil’s Hole Cave. Interestingly, early Native Americans called it the Cave of the Evil Spirit and foretold subsequent disaster to anyone who dared enter the cave. The combination of the lake, the dragonfly, and Devil’s Hole Cave all came together and helped crystalize the idea for this work.

Journey of a Dragonfly begins as the sun rises; a foreboding darkness looms in the background, contrasting the Dragonfly’s graceful entrance into a world filled with the excitement of being alive. A gust of wind carries dandelion seeds skyward alongside butterflies and rainbow-colored wildflowers. Butterflies land on flowers before the Dragonfly ventures through a dark forest and emerges, only to be chased by five blackbirds. Weaving back and forth to try and escape, the Dragonfly flies into a narrow crevice as two of the blackbirds collide with trees. While still being chased, the three remaining birds retreat as the Dragonfly discovers a dark hole leading to a tunnel. The dragonfly speeds down the ghoulish tunnel and emerges at the end of the tunnel at the side of a cliff, hovering in place. It looks around in horror and sees a gigantic cavern and then Devil Town. After flying through Devil Town and witnessing tortured souls, a bomb factory, Attorney Alley, and the Devil’s Saloon, off in the distance, the Dragonfly sees Satan’s House on a hill and decides to explore. The Dragonfly enters the house and sees the Devil Child, the Devil Mother, and the Devil himself. Suddenly, the Devil Child catches the Dragonfly in a glass jar as the parents prepare dinner in the kitchen. The Dragonfly eventually manages to escape, only to be chased by the Devil Child and then by a group of hellish bats. After a chaotic chase, the Dragonfly finds the tunnel and speeds back toward the world above. Finally free, the Dragonfly finds a flat rock to rest. The tale concludes as the Dragonfly falls asleep, the sun sets by the lake, and the evening fades to black.

Journey of a Dragonfly was written for JoAnn Falletta and Mostly Modern Orchestra in honor of Mostly Modern Festival’s fifth season.

– RP

Movements should be listed in programs as follows:

1. The Lake: Sunrise
2. Chase: Blackbirds
3. Descent Into The Underworld
4. Devil Town
5. Satan’s House
6. Trapped
7. Kitchen
8. Escape
9. Chase: Bats
10. Ascent To The World Above
11. The Lake: Sunset