ABSTRACT
Three of Talma’s choral works from this very late period stand out as being representative of her work at this time. As Joseph Straus has written in his analysis of Talma’s Seven Episodes for flute, viola, and piano (1987), and as was apparent in Talma’s construction and use of rows in Have You Heard? and Diadem, she created rows so that she was “able to compose serially within a diatonic sound world.” In Seven Episodes, Talma’s row “can be understood as three four-note segments of the circle of fifths.” Straus notes that this allows Talma to make use of both a completely diatonic collection and pentatonic collection from the row.8 Talma uses a similar approach in A Wreath of Blessings.
