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Smothered by Sky (2017)
Duration: ca. 8 minutes 3-3-3-3, 4-3-3-1, timp + 3, hp, pno, strings Program Note: When I first sat down to write Smothered by Sky, I had a clear mission in mind: to write an “un-fanfare.” Instead of blaring trumpets, there’d be befuddled bass clarinets; instead of booming timpani, there would be pots, pans, and other everyday found objects. Instead of grandiosity, there would be goofiness. As the piece developed, though, I kept revisiting the idea of escape velocity. Usually used in the context of space travel, escape velocity is the minimum speed an object (e.g. a spacecraft or satellite) must be going to escape the gravitational pull of another object (e.g. a planet or a moon). Despite its real-world origins and applications, there is a poetic idea to the trajectory the term implies. Smothered by Sky does not attempt to literally depict a rocket taking off, or a satellite going into orbit. Instead, it embraces the metaphor behind that narrative, of barreling through atmospheric chaos in order to transcend gravity itself. Likewise, Smothered by Sky’s “un-fanfare” constantly builds momentum, growing more and more anarchic in search of musical tranquility. But just as in real life, gravity always threatens to win out. What goes up, must come back down. Commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony, October 2017 Subsequent Performance by the St. Louis Symphony |