All Spread Their Wings
(movements 1-3)
(movements 4-6)
Alan Tomasetti, Flute
Lindsay Flowers, Oboe
JJ Koh, Clarinet
Eric Gilfus, Horn
Libby Garrett, Bassoon
Several of the movements in this piece are based on exercises that I wrote for David Farrell’s counterpoint class, and as one might assume, the piece explores a variety of approaches to counterpoint.
I. A Cage Without its Bird Swings in the Courtyard
A gently undulating chord progression repeats three times, each softer and lower than the last.
II. Branch to Branch, Half Hidden in the Leaves
This movement is entirely in unison, and explores the sounds of different instrument groupings and ranges. The bassoon begins delicately, but as the movement progresses the music becomes more forceful.
III. Old Feathers in the Rock
This movement is a short chaconne built on a repeated progression in the clarinet and bassoon. The flute suggests a heartbeat, and the horn and oboe occasionally enter with murmurs of cadential patterns.
IV. Scherzo in the Air
A three part fugue begins in 4/4, and after a short episode, the fugue returns in 3/4 before losing yet another beat and continuing in 2/4. The material is condensed further into triplets before finally coming to a halt. The fugue begins again in 4/4 but is slightly off kilter, and begins to be condensed again. Each time this process repeats, the final triplets become more boisterous and the resulting fugue more disjointed until the triplets eventually destroy the fugue altogether.
V. The Empty Golden Cage
This brief interlude is a return of the opening chord progression.
VI. The Sparrows Shattering to Nowhere
A cacophonous finale, in this movement the instruments play in independent meters. A modal melody emerges from the texture and is passed through all the instruments until they swell up into a final strident outburst.
All Spread Their Wings was completed at the end of the summer of 2008.