Last Spring, the composer, who also performs one of the viola parts in this work tonight, wrote: "Three American Folk Hymn Settings was written in the summer of 2000 for my dear friends, violinists Cornelius Dufallo and his wife Amy Kauffman. Amy's parents, Debra and Robert Kauffman, commissioned the work for a premiere performance at a nationwide Mennonite Conference in Nashville. Neil and Amy selected the three hymns, which I found particularly beautiful and at times, quite haunting. The hymns are "What Wondrous Love is This", "In Lonely Mountain Ways" and "I Come With Joy". Scoring these hymns for two violins was an unusual challenge, given the instrument's limited range in the lower end. Rather than struggle with a chorale-style setting, I decided to weave the hymn melodies into more idiomatic, fiddle-style writing that involves a great deal of counterpoint and double-stops with drone pedal tones. Because the hymns are very straightforward harmonically, I also tried to alter and add different harmonies as much as I could, without obscuring the familiar melodies. The two parts are quite active- rarely does either player have a moment's rest- and the work ends in a joyously raucous display of virtuosity. "It was Carol Rodland's idea to create an arrangement for two violas, which I was happy to oblige. Generally, I'm not interested in reworking my music for different instruments because I have very specific (possibly rigid) ideas about what keys they should be written in, but in this case, I agreed with Carol that two violas would work really well. I'm honored to play them with her for this performance!"
-- Kendall Briggs