for flute, clarinet and piano
circa 9 minutes
pictured in photo: The Parhelion Trio
PROGRAM NOTES by the composer:
"Sundog" is a piece written for my dear friends of the Parhelion Trio. The title is not only the nickname for the phenomenon known as a 'parhelion', but was also the nickname of a certain unnamed composer in his much younger years. The coincidence of this personal connection of names made a necessary (if slightly tongue-in-cheek) title and subject for the composition I had promised to write the talented bunch. In searching for more information on the phenomenon itself, I stumbled on the most poetic account in literature which served in part to inspire the form and fabric of the musical composition:
"Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;
Not separated with the racking clouds,
But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky.
See, see! They join, embrace, and seem to kiss,
As if they vow'd some league inviolable:
Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.
In this the heaven figures some event."-Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 3