Martha Walvoord - The Diaries of Adam and Eve (2019)

The Diaries of Adam and Eve (2016) for violin, double bass and optional narrators, was commissioned by Martha Walvoord and Jack Unzicker with funding provided by the University of Texas at Arlington. The world premiere took place in Irons Recital Hall on the campus of the University of Texas at Arlington on April 28, 2016 performed by Martha Walvoord, violin, and Jack Unzicker, double bass, with the optional narration provided by Karen Kenaston (Eve) and David Grogan (Adam).

The Diaries of Adam and Eve is inspired by a novella of the same name by Mark Twain (1835-1910) published in 1906. Divided into seven movements, the music I have composed animates Twain’s witty reimagining of the biblical tale of the first woman and man to inhabit the earth and the Garden of Eden.

The music also reflects the author’s droll ruminations on the complex and contradictory dualities of man and woman, good and evil, and love and hate. There are also poignant musical moments: the diaries are believed to have been written by Twain as a posthumous love-letter to his beloved wife Olivia Landgon Clemens who died before him in 1904. The story ends with Adam lamenting upon Eve’s death: “Wherever she was, there was Eden.”