S: I have spoken with Dr. Paul Bro and he gave me a brief insight into the development of this piece. He mentioned that originally you wanted to use the first five notes of "I Fall to Pieces" but Sony would not release the rights.
LL: This is true. I am a big fan of Patsy Cline's music. Her melodic inventiveness epitomizes my belief that a culture's music springs from that culture's language(s). Patsy Cline's words and pitches cannot be separated -- they are perfectly blended, as if they were conceived at one and the same time.
I wanted to deconstruct the melody from "I Fall to Pieces," but Sony would not release the rights. I suppose I could have legally used the first five notes: 5,6,5,5 (8va), 5 (8va), but they would not have been enough to give me the material for the piece. I really needed the first twelve melodic notes to make the case, since the tonic is not included.