White Mares of the Moon

Description

Flute, Harp — The American imagist poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925) provided both the title and the substance for this brief descriptive work in her poem “Night Clouds.”xa0 I had been commissioned by the flute/harp duo Chaski to write a piece that “had a different sound than most flute and harp pieces.”xa0 The image of these elusive beasts cavorting through the night, before the appearance of the “tiger sun,” seemed to me perfectly suited for the flute and harp and would give me the chance to write a work for that combination that did NOT have overtones of nymphs and shepherds.xa0 I wanted to make much use of the harp’s more violent sounds (beating the strings and the soundboard, for instance) as well as its unusual and idiomatic effects, such as pedal glissandi.xa0 For the flute, there are “jet-whistle” effects, extremes of register, pitch-bending and other decidedly non-pastoral gestures.xa0 The work was composed in 1986. —Dan Welcher