Lembit Beecher’s “These Memories May Be True” (2012) is a series of musical poems on elements of Estonian culture that his grandmother passed down to him. A natural storyteller through music, Beecher writes: “This piece is a little like the scattered image of Estonia that I had while growing up, filtered through many layers of retelling, and touched by a sense of nostalgia, a sense of something beautiful that has been lost in the wash of time.”
About this movement, Lembit writes: “This movement has its origins in an entrancing Estonian song I heard on an old field recording. It is music that can’t possibly be notated in the confines ofWestern notation and it is music that I don’t totally understand, but there must be some meaning in it for me since I keep returning to these recordings. Like most Estonian folk songs, this movement consists of repetitions of a short melody, though near the middle of the movement the melody gets a little lost.”
Live Performance at Berkeley Chamber Performances (Berkeley, CA) on March 3, 2020. “These Memories May Be True” was written in 2012 and premiered by the Del Sol Quartet.
Emma Frucht & Miho Saegusa, violins
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello
