Gestures of Grace (2021)
18 minutes
flute and piano
Premiere: April 2021 - Linehan Concert Hall, Baltimore, MD
Commissioned by Sarah Frisof
PROGRAM NOTE
Just before writing Gestures of Grace, my large duo for flute and piano, I spent a great deal of time watching dance videos of many styles and sorts. No matter the genre, I was awed by the dancers’ masterful grace of movement. Grace takes many forms in dance, as in this piece: grace in delicacy, but also in strength; in elegance, but also in humor and irony; in moments of repose, but also in moments of excitement and agitation.
I call this piece a sonata both because of its length, and also because of the way the music unfolds: there is a constant sense of development — of “spinning out” — that runs through the piece, beginning from the very first gesture the flute plays. The work is divided into five sections that are joined seamlessly. The first three parts are short (2-3 minutes each) and have the character of vignettes, like movements of a ballet suite. “Glinting” is a starlit noctural scene infused with tenderness. “Dancing,” the longest part, brings together many musical strands and characters from earlier in the piece, joined in a playful, fleet-footed rush of motion.
As I was composing this work, I was focused on writing gracefully for the two instruments, both as individuals and as a duo. The relationship between the instruments is an equal parnership, a tribute to my many joyful years of making music with Sarah Frisof.