Program note
FLING was written in 2004 for a 13-piece ensemble who turned it down for being too difficult. Conductor George Stelluto nonetheless liked the piece and performed it in this orchestral transcription with his student orchestra at the 2006 Las Vegas Music Festival.
The original instrumentation included two saxophones, drumset and bass — which, to my limited imagination, implied jazz. The orchestra version lost the two saxes but kept the jazz.
Formally, the piece combines elements of rondo, variations, and arch form. The opening is a four-voice inversion canon that serves as the ritornello. Its initial cell — two short repeated notes followed by a longer one — becomes the subject of the main theme, which is immediately put through a multitude of canons. Near the end, the ritornello melody appears above the returning first episode, leading into the final statement of the main theme.
Details
Instrumentation
Orchestra
Duration
8'
Date
2004
Sheet music
Available upon request
Prize
Finalist – American Composers Orchestra Underwood Readings, May 2007, New York
First performance
Las Vegas Music Festival Orchestra
George Stelluto, conductor, August 2006