Departing Flights (1993)

Violin, Cello, and Piano – 22 mins.

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Score (Free Download)

Program Note

Departing Flights for Piano Trio (1993) reflects emotions precipitated by the composer’s decision to pick up roots after 20 years in Memphis to fly to Australia for a summer and then on to a new life in Bloomington, Indiana. The piece goes beyond these specific references to other implications of “flights” and “departures”.

The first movement, Ungrounded, is marked “with anxious exhilaration”. The second movement, which quotes fragments from J.S. Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, becomes an elegiac memorial of the composer’s brother. The third movement considers various ways of extending two contrasting tunes, but ends with a literal rendition of Isaac’s farewell to the city of Innsbruck (“Innsbruck, ich musz dich lassen”). This is followed by …Afterthought — not really a “movement” but a half-minute musical evaporation.