Night Music
| Composed in: | 2008 |
| Instrumentation: | Flute/Alto Flute, Horns (4) |
| Commissioned by: | Quadre: the Voice of Four Horns |
| Premiered by: | Molly Barth, flute/alto flute Quadre |
| Publisher: | Solid Wood Music |
Program Notes
Daniel Wood asked me to write a piece for flute and horn quartet for his group, Quadre, in part, because he had long wanted me to write a piece for them, and in part because Quadre was embarking on a project with flutist Molly Barth. Since I, too, am a flutist, he figured I was the right composer for the job. The instrumentation seemed to me a nearly-impossible challenge: how does one balance a flute with the powerful sound of four horns? Add to that my generating idea for the piece, which included rather dense chords for the horns, and further, my desire to use the even-softer alto flute for some of the piece. My solution was to make the flute a separate character, playing largely in contrast to the horns, sometimes at the same time as the horns, sometimes in solo flights of virtuosity.
I named the piece Night Music because of the rather dark, introspective character of the music. A night person, myself, I think of the dark hours as giving the opportunity for reflection and journeys into other worlds.