Shadow Flow (2007)
For solo viola, 11 minutes
This piece was written for Petra Ackermann of Vienna.First performance September 19, 2007 at the Austrian Cultural Institute, New York by Petra Ackermann. Composed in Dar es Salaam, New York City, Fez and Darmstadt. First recording by Dov Scheindlin, on New World Records.
Score published by and available from PSNY.
Program Note:
In the first work of this cycle “in flow,” I used the flow concept of Csíkszentmihályi to spin out a fantastic stream of disparate information into a continuous line of musical ideas, gradually changing focus between a birds eye view and a magnifying lens view of these musical ideas. Flow becomes the vehicle for focusing the audience (and performer) perception from details to large-scale direction of the music.
Shadow Flow begins to question these concepts by using five unrelated sections of music that each has their own specific beginnings and endings. Flow filters are still used in each section, but the larger concerns addressed in this work is how to redefine “flow” through unrelated sections of music.
“quietly virtuosic and addictive”
The Wire UK
“Constructed as free fantasies, where moment-to-moment activity takes precedence over organizational unity, they articulate small details with energetic gestures - jolting, swooping, lilting rhythms; irregular phrase lengths and unexpected accents; string harmonics, bristling pizzicati, exaggerated bowing, and other tonal/textural effects.
But there is also an ever-present clarity of line and dramatic continuity that help the music sound subtly familiar and vigorously new at the same time."
- Fanfare Magazine
The Flow Cycle is influenced by Islamic Mosaics, Gnawa music of Morocco, Albert Camus' L'Étranger, and the Flow concept of Csíkszentmihályi. While the first work "in flow" for solo violin uses an expansive linear approach to compose 'flow' of unrelated materials, each subsequent work (Shadow Flow for viola, Moroccan Flow (unfolding from unity) for 'cello, Duo Flow for violin and 'cello, and "à cause du soleil" Flow Trio for String Trio) uses a sectional approach to create a mosaic-like experience of flow that is reflected in each of the works, which can be performed separately.