Catching Light for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and percussion

(2014) 15'

Commissioned by Network for New Music
Recorded on Albany Records (Troy 1748)

Program note

Catching Light was commissioned for the thirtieth anniversary season of Network for New Music, an ensemble that I have conducted since nearly its inception.

I was asked to contribute a work that would, in some way, be about light, for a concert entitled The Heart of Light and Dark. From among the great variety of ways that attributes of physical light are described in the English language, I chose three: flickering (burning unsteadily or fitfully), shimmering (shining with a reflected or subdued, tremulous light), and burning. These types of light were not, however, taken literally but rather as stimulating departure points. Since there is considerable overlap in these types of light, there is also much musical overlap between the movements, all sharing the same DNA, especially so in the first and third (the third following the second without pause).

The fifteen minute work was premiered by Network for New Music on April 19, 2015 in Philadelphia at the Curtis Institute of Music, Gould Hall, the composer conducting. I am very grateful to Linda Reichert, artistic director of Network, for her support over the years. The work was subsequently revised in 2017 for a performance by Ensemble Èchappè and their subsequent recording for Albany Records. The work is published by Theodore Presser Co.

I. Flickering
II. Shimmering
III. Burning