Ship of State

This one-movement chamber concerto by Stephen Hartke for piano and twenty players uses four sections, each bearing headings from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Building of the Ship. The poem is a culmination on themetaphorical comparison of the perils and tribulations of government to that of a ship at sea in a storm. It was commissioned by Xak Bjerken, the Oberlin Sinfonietta, the University of Southern California Thornton Edge Ensemble,Ensemble X, June in Buffalo, and the Arizona State University Chamber Orchestra. Section titles: 1. Hanging breathless (Foundering), 2. In spite of false lights on the shore (Edgy, potentially explosive), 3. The anchors of thyhope (Gently - a rueful lullaby), 4. What Workmen wrought (Lively, resurgent)