| Summary: | Icarus, landing is a fifteen-minute work for mixed chamber
ensemble including flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, double bass,
piano, and percussion. The work is written in one continuous movement,
though it is subdivided into an introduction and three main subsections, each
approximately five minutes long. While each instrument has a challenging,
soloistic part, the piano part is used to denote change within the sections and to
introduce the opening material of the piece.
The programmatic content of Icarus, landing is based on the
experience of my father's illness and death from cancer in 1999, and on the
similar experiences of several of my friends. The three sections of the piece
correspond to the time before these deaths took place, the time of emerging :
disease and mental degeneration, and the experience of a sudden and
unexpected death and the shock and panic that it engendered. Throughout the
work there are timbral markers, sounds which have extra-musical associations
which convey meaning to the listener in a more concrete sense than more
abstract, "pure" music.
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