This piece began as an image of a dark, assured pencil line meandering horizontally across a sheet of paper through a dense, yet translucent cloud of smeared graphite. As is the case often for me, this image proved very unreliable as an indicator for how the piece would unfold. And yet, as the piece ends the same image comes to mind with the bassoon in the role of the assured pencil. I dare not attribute this happenstance to anything other than fortuity, but I marvel at the surprising nature of intuition and hope it feels equally as exciting and revealing from the standpoint of a first listen.

The premiere performance of Chalk Line was given by Till by Turning at the Friends Meetinghouse in New York City.