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Humming Harvest Gone Snow Motor
1983
flute
harp
vibraphone
violin
viola
cello
duration 9''
first performance:
Alea III. cond. Theodore Antoniou
Boston University Concert Hall /
September 1985
awards:
1st Prize Kucyna International Composition Competition 1985
RECORDING — performance by Capricorn, cond. Lionel Friend:
and for fun, the spoken introduction to the BBC's Music in Our Time broadcast of the concert:
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SCORE
Movement 1
Movement 2
Movement 3
PROGRAM NOTE
Writing a program note for this work some 33 years after its composition is a risky task – I barely remember the thinking behind most of the music. I do remember, however, that the first movement had something to do with bluegrass fiddling (I don't really see how anymore, though); the second movement came about after an evening spent with a particularly noisy refrigerator with a big palette of varying sounds; and the third movement was an attempt to imbue the minimalist music that I had just started to discover with a more dissonant harmonic language.
The title comes from my sketchbook for the piece. I often list words that act as mnemonics for the form or intention of a work I've just started composing. These five words were at the head of that list and seemed, after its completion, to sum up the music nicely.