Flute Concerto in Three Reels (2003)

Flute solo, Orchestra, (WW2222+ASx, Brass 2211, Strings) – 19 min.
Orchestral Score and Audio also available at the New Music USA Online Library
Piano Reduction Score, Piano Reduction Audio

[solo fl. / 2fl.2ob.2cl.1asax.2bn. / 2tpt.2hn.1tbn.1tba. / str.]

Video

Audio

Audio – Piano Reduction

Full Score (Free Download)

Reduction Score (Free Download)

Program Note

I can remember reading movie reviews in which the critic would refer to events in the film as occurring in “the second reel” or “the third reel.” It seemed strange to think of the extended dramatic form of a motion picture defined as series of reels of film. We, certainly, were never aware of the reels at all, unless the projectionist fell asleep or the film broke, ripping the audience from the continuum of the film’s fantasy world into stark reality.

The breaks between the “reels” of my Flute Concerto are purposefully arbitrary. They give the performers a chance to re-tune, and provide the opportunity for the audience’s attention span to re-engage. But their principal function is to sharpen the awareness of the counterpoint between the physical properties of the medium and the fantasy world it creates. It could be argued that all art — or more grandiosely, our experience of life itself — is about this meeting of the physical and the spiritual worlds.

Those looking for a deeper meaning might consider the proposition that our prevailing perception of reality is simply a superficial layer, waiting only for the reel to stop, abruptly exposing something more substantial beneath it. One possible lyric for the tune which introduces the flute and dominates the third reel:

“Show me the way to back to nowhere,
Show me the road to go home.”