slow movement (1993) 25'
Commissioner: Icebreaker
First Performer: 15 June 1993 in the Purcell Room, London, UK
Instrumentation: 2 fl,a sax,ten sax,bar sax,perc,2 syn,acn, 2 egtr,ebgtr,e vn,e vc; all amplified
Special Features:
Program note:
People seem to like a lot of things happening in a piece of music: fireworks, excitement, fancy technology. These things can be great, but sometimes, as a composer, it's tiring to know that everyone wants so many things all of the time. In ''slow movement'' I just wanted to write a piece in which nothing happens. Well, something happens: a kind of dim spotlight is focused on the fundamental musical experience, marking out the inexorable passage of time. I wrote ''slow movement'' for Icebreaker in 1993, and it was the first time I made a piece using this approach. Since then I have made several others, most notably ''the passing measures'' for bass clarinet, women's voices, and amplified orchestra.
—David Lang
