Baroque Melting

Work Overview

  • Instrumentation: divisi, strings, harpsichord

  • Commission: San Jose Chamber Orchestra

  • Premiere: October 8, 2017, Barbara Day Turner, Conductor, Michael Touchi, Harpsichord, San Jose Chamber Orchestra

  • Duration:  approximately 6 minutes


Program Note

Imagine music “melting,” the aural equivalent to Salvador Dali’s melting clock in Persistence of Memory. This is the heart of “Baroque Melting,” in which I take familiar Baroque musical ideas and motives, recognizable elements accentuated by the harpsichord, contort them, bending pitches and phrases out of shape, and then twist them back into focus again. The apotheosis comes at the end, when a quotation of a Bach chorale, “Wär Gott Nicht mit uns diese Zeit” from Cantata BWV 14, is warped, fading the work out to end on a quiet and contemplative note.


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