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Stop Sliding
1981

flute
clarinet
percussion 
bamboo wind chimes, bass drum, glockenspiel, small gong, 
  snare drum, suspended cymbal, woodblock

piano
cello
doublebass

duration 20' 

commissioned by the West Midlands Arts Council
first performance: Birmingham New Music Consort, cond. Stephen Gibson / 
West Midlands Arts Center, Birmingham / May 22, 1982


RECORDING
Ludovico Ensemble, 2009: 



SCORE



PROGRAM NOTE

Stop Sliding falls into three sections: fast/slow/fast. Interpolated are a further three subsections; the first a duet for pizzicato cello and bass; the second for solo piano; and the third, which closes the work, again for piano but highly decorated by the other instruments who slip fragments and shadows of the opening music over the texture. The title refers to the quality of the musical material: an untethered flute passage, a dislocated string duet, flurrying scales. Although there is no program for the work, the ideas behind it came together during a particularly stormy winter, and some of that wildness and roughness is present in the music.