Spirit Realms

Description

Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute — This work is my second for a solo woodwind and a solo percussionist, following Firewing: The Flame and the Moth for oboe and percussion by nine years.xa0 The earlier piece followed a specific story line, and pitted the oboe against the percussionist as both adversary and lover.xa0 In Spirit Realms, my aim was not only to juxtapose the very different sounds of flute (plus alto flute and piccolo) against a large array of percussion, but also to attempt three different meditative “spaces”, each named for a different type of spiritual practice.xa0 The musical means of expression is very different for each of the three movements (as is the instrumentation), although they share a common scale-source: the “looped pentatonic” scale I have been developing over the last several years. The first movement is called “Prayer Tunnel,” and is named for the Eskimo practice of solo meditation within a tunnel of ice blocks.xa0 This is said to be a means of overcoming demons within, and in my musical rendering it takes the form of an unaccompanied alto flute solo.xa0 The flute begins rather angrily, full of tension, but in the course of the solo passage manages to slowly unwind.xa0xa0 The percussionist then plays the exact same music the alto flute had played….on seven tuned cymbals.xa0 Toward the end, the alto flute re-enters, its original meditation having fused with its mirror. “Kiva” represents the circular, subterranean pit in which the Anasazi practiced their religion, a form of which still can be found in the Hopi tribes of the American southwest.xa0 These are not spaces for solo meditation, but rather a group meeting place in which only the sanctified are permitted.xa0 After an introductory invocation (dove call), the music begins.xa0 At first, it is flowing, in a repetitive double-five meter.xa0 It then traces several sections, with metric shifts forcing the pulse to race faster and faster, until it halves itself in the coda and returns to the exact pulse of the beginning.xa0 The flutist here uses the C flute, and the percussionist plays on both pitched (marimba) and unpitched instruments (various drums and struck sources). “Zendo” is the meditation room used by Zen Buddhists.xa0 My music begins with another invocation (wind chimes, temple cup gongs, and temple blocks), then moves on to a slow subject stated by the flute.xa0 The subject is taken up by the vibraphone, and after several modulations and tempo changes, the flutist takes up the piccolo.xa0 The music continues higher and higher, and faster and faster (Zen meditation is NOT all about becoming “lost”!) until it breaks free at the very end.xa0 The percussionist is put through his paces in this movement, having to reach a staggering number of instruments in a short time. Spirit Realms was commissioned by, and is dedicated to, the Armstrong Duo.— Dan Welcherxa0