david bithell

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program note: The challenge I set up for myself in this composition is to start with a simple idea of alternation - passing evolving gestures back and forth between individual instruments and instrumental groups (winds, piano, and strings) - and expand it to have both local and global implications. At a basic level, the local alternation between instruments is translated to a formal alternation of entire sections. I relate the evolution present within local materials to a formal compression of gestural idea - as the piece evolves, the instrumental motives become more subdued and inhabit a narrower range. In a sense, this work explores a parallel structural/gestural language re-orchestrated and filtered through each of three successive formal sections. This overarching diminuendo (the opposite of many formal strategies) is as intriguing to me as it is challenging to effectively realize.

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