Postcard was commissioned by my friend, colleague, and former mentor, H. Robert Reynolds, in memory of his mother, Ethel Virginia Curry. He requested that I compose not an elegy commemorating her death, but a short energetic piece celebrating her life. In response, I have composed this brief "postcard" as a musical reflection of her character -- vibrant, whimsical, succinct.

It is cast in an ABA' form. The primary theme, first heard in the flute and clarinet and used in the outer sections, is...