Commissioned by MOMENTA Dance Company in fall 2013 with choreogrpahy by Sarah Fuller. James Falzone: composer & clarinet Ellen McSweeney: violin Elizabeth Weamer: cello Thomas Holmes: piano Recorded by Mikhail Fiksel at Loyola University Chicago on November 8, 2014. Inspired by THE DANCER by Philip Larkin, 1943 Butterfly Or falling leaf, Which ought I to imitate In my dancing? And if she were to admit The world weaved by her feet Is leafless, is incomplete? And if she abandoned it, Broke the pivoted dance, Set loose the audience? Then would the moon go raving, The moon, the anchorless Moon go swerving Down at the earth for a catastrophic kiss.

James' chamber piece. Butterly or Falling Leaf, for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, will be performed (on recording) with choreography by Sarah Fuller. Both the music and the movement were commissioned in 2013 by the MOMENTA Dance Company. 

The music was inspired by Philip Larkin's 1943 poem The Dancer

   Butterfly
   Or falling leaf,
   Which ought I to imitate
   In my dancing?

And if she were to admit
The world weaved by her feet
Is leafless, is incomplete?
And if she abandoned it,
Broke the pivoted dance,
Set loose the audience?
Then would the moon go raving,
The moon, the anchorless
Moon go swerving
Down at the earth for a catastrophic kiss.