Composed in 2017 (revised 2018) for violist and vocalist Margaret Carey, based on her poem 'Rose Petals'. As with any text setting, the composer’s reading of a poem both molds the music and distorts the poem itself. My personal interpretation of the poem is firmly imprinted on the music, an interpretation that is only one of many possible readings. The voice enters at key points, offering fragments of the opening and closing lines of the poem, altering the course of the piece as a whole. As I worked, I also became increasingly influenced by a second outside force: the Andantino of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in A major D.959. This movement echoes through the piece. Not only do two distorted quotations appear at important formal moments, but more abstract aspects of the music are alluded to: the central section builds to a disproportionately violent climax; sharp fortissimo chords interrupt the gradual denouement; semi-tones pervade several sections; rolled chords appear throughout, usually as slow , drawn-out arpeggios; and the ending is an obsessive, repetitive dirge in the lowest registers of both instruments. This work can be performed as written for viola/voice & piano, or for viola & piano with the vocal parts played sul tasto on the viola. In either case, the vocal line in mm. 121-128 should be hummed. If sung, the vocal lines can be transposed down an octave if necessary.