impromptu (2019)

[3333.4321.timp+2 perc.harp.strings]
Duration: 5’

Commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

Premiered January 24, 2020 at Hilbert Circle Theater, Indianapolis, IN.
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; Krzysztof Urbański, conductor

View the score

Something that is so striking about Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, besides its famed obsessiveness, is its radical use of space. Silence suddenly permeates moments of climax, as in the first movement, or points of arrival are delayed by long pedal tones, as in the third movement. In my response, impromptu, I steal a chord progression from the development of the first movement, savoring and expanding the space between each harmony. I explore non-pitched or sparsely pitched textures between these harmonic columns, recasting the common-practice tonality of Beethoven’s time in a decidedly ‘non-tonal’ way, like echoes or shadows of a tradition past. The visual metaphor I have in mind is holding his manuscript under a powerful microscope and seeing all the little grains and details and fibers of the paper in between each inky chord on the page.