TreeStone (1983)

“TreeStone” is a through-composed, richly evocative, multi-textured and thoroughly engaging work for soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble. Like Joyce’s novel, the piece is witty, obscure, and utterly fascinating. It deals simultaneously with sacred, mythic and sacrilegious material, all woven together masterfully.

”TreeStone” is a beautifully conceived work, from the handling of it s tonal and motivic material to the tempo of its mood changes. Most striking of all is Albert’s success in managing the kind of long, long line that very few composers since Mahler have attempted. His sense of formal breadth and his ability to sustain it, through both a sophisticated development and an astute pattern of repetition and return, clearly show Albert’s mastery.