frigia (2011)

Commission: Lunar Ensemble / Barlow Endowment 

Instrumentation: flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), piano, violin, cello and soprano

Alternate Instrumentation: flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), piano, violin, and cello

Duration: 13 minutes

Program Information:
frigia
 is inspired by the changing foilage of the New England fall and winter seasons, and is set to text written by the composer. Like the text, the piece is a skewed palindrome, with the outer sections mirrored around the word ‘frigia‘. The music’s noir and psychedelic qualities, painted in part by the low soprano writing and the juxtaposition of microtonal and diatonic clusters in the instrumental ensemble, are a reflection on the composer’s reinterpretation of beauty.

The word frigia is from the Flash Gordon comic series, where it the name of an ultra-modern ice kingdom ruled by Queen Fria, on the rogue planet Mongo.

Text:
leaf tombe [leaf falls]

splashes of red
cruel bite
bled their beauty away

frigia, all is withdrawn

bleach of silence
without breath
frost-coated embers decay

雪 jatuh [snow falls]

– text by the composer

Premiere:
March 13 2012 | Lunar Ensemble | Baltimore MD

Performance:
May 5 2012 | New Music Brandeis | Waltham MA
August 26 2012 | Chamber Sounds | Singapore [alternate instrumentation]
October 17 2012 | Israel Contemporary Players | Tel Aviv, Israel [alternate instrumentation]
March 01 2013 | Acoustic Uproar | Boston MA [alternate instrumentation]
March 13 2013 | Lunar Ensemble | New Orleans LO [alternate instrumentation]
March 14 2013 | Lunar Ensemble | New Orleans LO [alternate instrumentation]
September 12 2015 | UMass Amherst Faculty Ensemble | Bezanson Hall, Amherst MA
October 03 2017 | Rote Hund Muzik | Athens GA