This short composition (3 minutes) for soprano and wind ensemble (also a version for soprano and 9-piece chamber winds) is a setting of one quatrain from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, as translated by Edward Fitzgerald (verse 51 in the first edition, 1859):
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
The piece was commissioned by the Conductor Dr. C. David Ragsdale and the Wind Ensemble at the University of Alabama in Huntsville for the inauguration of University President Dr. David Williams. The text was selected by President Williams.
Harmonically, the basis of this composition is an alternation between the "pretty" sound of major 9th chords and the "uneasy" sound of diminished 7th chords. The melodic ideas primarily pass back and forth between soprano and trombone.
Version with full wind ensemble premiered April 11, 2008:
Version with chamber winds (4 woodwinds, 4 brass, 1 percussion) premiered May 4, 2008: