I read a lot:  novels, poetry, short stories, books about music, letters, collected essays by interesting people, the newspapers.  I had for quite awhile been thinking about writing my own set of short stories, but with music instead of words.  Short Stories, which I composed for the Debussy Trio during May-August 1995, is the result.  I have used single words to set the stage for each story: ‘graceful’, ‘fleet’, ‘keening’, etc.  The content of the story – its plot, characters, setting, feel – are left for you to fill in, if you are so inclined.  When composing the music, I imagined a situation where listeners (they tended to be children in my imagination) would compare stories after hearing the music.  As it turns out, a children’s ballet theatre from North Carolina toured with a choreographed version of ‘Short Stories’ a few summers ago.  I was unable to attend, but I would be very interested to see what stories they told.

- Donald Crockett

Short Stories             (1995)

I.               Graceful

II.             Fleet

III.           Keening

IV.           Scurrying

V.             Melancholy

VI.           Scampering

VII.         Jubilant