Work progresses more or less uninterrupted now on the new chamber piece, a commission for Peter Flint‘s ensemble, Avian Music, for mixed ensemble. It’ll premiere on a Rock&Roll-themed program, surrounded by works of Conrad Cummings, Michael Gandolfi, Michael Daugherty, David Laganella, Richard Belcastro, and Flint himself, all written for variations of the somewhat hairy ensemble of flute, sax, violin, cello, guitar, piano, and percussion. My piece will forgo the percussionist (blame logistics, plus a desire to keep things a tad simpler this time) and stick to the resultant sextet.
You’ll pardon the metaphor, but it has taken quite a while to get this particular bird to fly. More than a few weeks were spent puttering around with material, trying to figure out what the piece is about. I’m pretty sure I’ve finally broken through that (admittedly, terrifying) period, and a piece might actually be happening here. So now it’s more like staring at a bunch of jigsaw puzzle pieces … and at least now I know what the picture might be.
The project has even found a working title: The Vinyl Six. I’m not married to it yet, but I do think it has legs. Easy on the tongue, good intimations of the LP era, and a smattering of confusion as to whether it’s a band or a piece. Dig it.
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