false relationships

Complete Work Title: 

false relationships


Performance Medium: 

wind octet: 2 oboes/English horns, 2 Bb clarinets/Bb bass clarinets, 2 horns, 2 bassoons


Movements: 

prologue: sects,discourse — alter ego — circuit — schism (concertino) — epilogue: acquiescence/diaspora


Duration: 

c.20:00


Dedication: 

for Richard Hornsby


Date Composed: 

August 1989 - February 1990


Performance Information: 

The work incorporates significant theatrical elements, and includes detailed staging instructions for the performers.


Performance/Broadcast History: 
  • 16 March 1990; University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario/Canada)
  • 14 March 1990; University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario/Canada)
  • 8 March 1990; Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) [premiere]

    Indiana University Wind Chamber Players; James Campbell, director


Program Notes: 

false relationships was composed between August of 1989 and February of 1990 at the request of clarinetist Richard Hornsby. The work is in five continuous movements, each utilizing different combinations of the eight instruments. Clarinets are prominent in prologue: sects,discourse, an introductory movement in which the basic materials of the entire work are presented. In alter ego, the ensemble is divided into two equal quartets which engage in a polemic exchange, the musical material of which is based loosely upon the second movement of Antonín Dvorák’s Serenade for Winds, Opus 44. The third movement, circuit, is a round for six players modeled after the third movement of Mozart’s Serenade No. 12 in C-minor, K.388. Based upon Edgard Varèse’s Octandre, schism (concertino) features the two oboists against a ripieno consisting of the remainder of the ensemble. This apparent rift is ultimately rectified in the final movement, epilogue: acquiescence/diaspora, which is characterized by a convergence and eventual dispersion of the entire ensemble.