THIRD FROM THE SUN

Composed: 1988 (revised 1991)
Premiere:  Saint Louis Symphony, David Loebel, cond., Kirksville, MO, February 15, 1989
Premiere: revised version, Julliard Symphony, Christopher Kendall, conductor, Alice Tully Hall, New York, January 31, 1992
Duration: 13 minutes
Instrumentation: 3 (2nd Afl., 3rd Picc)3(E.H.)2 B.Cl 2 Cbsn; 4331; timp., 3 perc., hp., strings

PROGRAM NOTES

I.  The Forest Breathing
II. Currents and Cross Current

There is a sense of stillness in the forest. It is a silence that is alive with whispers almost too quiet to hear - sounds that, regrettably, are so often covered by modern noise. In the first movement, the forest's breathing silence is alluded to by the use of faint rustling, almost soundless, non-pitched orchestral sounds and the quiet calmness of static clusters of semitones. Modern man's life rhythms superimposed over the earth's natural rhythms inspired the form of the second movement. Seldom converging, forces like human time as opposed to geological time and man's technical knowledge in contrast to primal instincts and perceptions, seem to go forward on two separate levels unaware of the other. Similarly here, two musical ideas progress side by side, although independently, in separate, overlaid forms. A repeated note motive and rhythmic complexities inspired the use of the Fibonacci number series in sections of this movement.