Performances

World premiere: Cleveland Chamber Collective, Drinko Hall, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, April 19, 2013

Program Note

This work was commissioned by The Cleveland Chamber Collective.

I got my initial idea for the piece from the “Rembrandt in America” show at Cleveland Museum of Art. One of the exhibits showed how part of an image had been painted over by the artist — in this case it was the angle of a thumb that was reconsidered. This is known as a ‘pentimento’ in the art world.

I got to thinking how artists are always striving to get things just right, and how often that doesn’t happen on the first try. Also it seemed to me a larger metaphor for life in general. Shortly afterwards I went on a camping trip in the Australian outback, and there during the night I heard the songs of the dingos, dogs who were once tame but are now wild again. I tried to transcribe this beautiful sound– presented by the flute in my piece– where it becomes the voice of pure loneliness, in juxtaposition to the passionate strivings of the other instruments.