Elegy for Simas Kudirka (1972)

Flute, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Contrabass, Harp – 14 min.
Publisher – Seesaw Music

Audio

Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Simas Kudirka, a Lithuanian nationalist conscripted into the Soviet navy, attempted to defect by jumping from the deck of his Soviet fishing vessel to the deck of a US Coast Guard cutter during a previously arranged rendezvous to discuss fishing rights. The Coast Guard incredibly allowed Soviet sailors to board the US cutter, beat the would-be defector into unconsciousness, then return with him in a Coast Guard launch to the waiting Soviet ship.

Elegy (1972) was partially inspired by outrage at the military mentality which allowed this event to transpire: to a young composer facing the Vietnam War draft, the US Coast Guard brass who permitted Kudirka to be beaten and returned appeared to feel a stronger responsibility to regulations concerning conscription and desertion common to all large military powers than to the American ideals of personal freedom which they profess to support. More important to the piece, however, is the character of Kudirka and the drama of the incident: Kudirka’s courage, his exultant leap to freedom, his violent beating, and his subsequent frustration and bitterness suggested musical materials which are interposed out of sequence over the generally elegiac tenor of the piece.

Most of the pitch material of the piece is built around the three-note sonority of two major seconds. The use of four of these triads to form a complete 12-note set is integral to the organization of the piece.

Five large sections (slow-fast-slow-fast-slow) are perceivable. In the final slow section a rapid harp cadenza appears over a chorale in the five other instruments. The timbre of each sonority of the chorale was determined by a numerical sequence; the harmonies are major second triads built on successive “roots” from the row.