Description
Duration: 10'00"
Instrumentation: flute (doubling alto flute), viola and harp
Partially Funded by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
Premiere: Robert Vroegindewey, flute; Jethro Marks, viola; Ann Yeung, harp; Cornell University, Barnes Hall, Ithaca, NY, April 2, 2000.
Selected Additional Performances: Aureole Trio, New York Harp Trio, Naiades Ensemble, Trio St. Germain
Program Notes
My original inspiration for Embracing the Wind was the image of an Olympic athlete running against the wind. The process of writing this work eventually shifted me to more abstract thoughts, such as the concept of creating music that sounds flexible and has wind-like, ebb-and-flow qualities. I try to achieve this by creating musical zephyrs from repeated motives and smooth phrases that utilize gradual dynamic swells and subtle tempo fluxuations. In this sense, Embracing the Wind is perhaps more minimal and Romantic than many of my other pieces: minimal in that cells that are repeated over and over again as textural background, Romantic in that the form is intentionally less severe and also has a narrative, structural quality.
– Robert Paterson
