Music by DANIEL DORFF
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Through a Misty Arch... for Flute Ensemble (with optional narrator and/or dance)
Duration: c. 5' DETAILS COMPOSED IN RESIDENCE at Ardmore Avenue Elementary School, Lansdowne, PA, after a poem by 6th grader Joy MacAlister. PREMIERED two days later by an ensemble of 2nd-year flutists; subsequently performed frequently at university recitals, including multi-media adaptations. WATCH a live performance at the 2021 MMEA Winter Festival by students at University of Minnesota-Duluth (starts at 9:30 into the video). BUY from your favorite sheet music dealer or direct from Presser. PROGRAM NOTES This music was inspired by the following poem by Joy MacAlister, a sixth-grade student at the Ardmore Avenue Elementary School in Lansdowne, PA, during a residence supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Artists in Education program. THROUGH A MISTY ARCH... may be performed as a concert piece for flutes alone, or as music underscoring a reading of the poem. In addition, dance may be added. When using both the poem and the music, read lines 1–6 beginning in bar 11, then read lines 6–10 beginning in bar 36. I walk into another world, Through a misty arch Nothing is around me Except dry, empty space The sounds are quiet and soft Just as at home Through a misty arch To a quiet place The quiet is a lullaby To rock me to sleep © 1985 by Joy MacAlister Used by permission REVIEWS "A very nice piece, with pleasing harmonic progressions."             – New Flute Review, Winter-Spring 1988.
	last updated May 25, 2026 home