Nine Movements (2015)
for pierrot ensemble
premiered by Eco Ensemble
Hertz Hall, Berkeley CA
12/14/15

score


Formally, the piece interrogates the various ways short pieces can function and interrelate - as stand alone pieces, as a continuous suite, as variations, etc. Narrative structures are courted, disrupted, and abandoned. One particular quasi-narrative strand reaches its apex towards the middle, when some Burt Bacharach-flavored music interrupts business as usual. The allusion is motivated by an entirely private set of idiosyncratic associations. What I’ve tried to make public, however, is the elusive rhythm of subjective memory. There is also a perverse sense of humor emerging here that has not left my work since.