Afterlight for mixed sextet

(2016) 8'

for the Temple University New Music Ensemble

Program note

After years of conducting new music by students, faculty, and guests as director of the Temple University New Music Ensemble, I decided to contribute a piece of my own.

I wanted to create a piece that provided both ensemble and solo/duo passages as well as challenges in tuning, coordination, sharing, and, for the pianist, effects produced inside the instrument. The resulting form is a loose five-part rondo that is determined largely by the instrumentation: tutti, winds, tutti, strings, tutti; piano and percussion are featured in the tutti sections. Meanwhile, Afterlight is a conscious cultivation of materials from three of my recent pieces (Concertino, Quartet, Catching Light) with the intent of fashioning previously used materials into a different outcome. The name of the piece thus refers to the “afterlife” of these materials, and in particular to Catching Light, my 2014 work for the same “Pierrot plus percussion” instrumentation. Materials available from the composer.