Wind/Unwind (2002)
Commissioned by the Kylix New Music Ensemble with funding from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition.
Duration: 15 min.
Instrumentation: flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Wind/Unwind employs varying rates of change and development in an exploration of motion in music. The first movement, spiraling, is a single, continuous line that unfolds very slowly yet steadily. The texture grows increasingly heavy and dense with each return of the theme, giving way to a massive, dissonant cluster that fades away, unresolved. (a little interlude) follows, characterized by a quirky, lilting waltz. The music moves forward in sudden surges and stops, providing a brief respite from the intensity of the opening movement. maniacal is a whirlwind of chromatic flurries and short explosive statements, creating a rush of frenetic energy that propels the movement forward. The initially fast rate of change from idea to idea and colour to colour changes as the music becomes fixated on particular gestures, eventually collapsing into obsessive repetitions of the opening three-note motive.
The title comes from the imagery I associate with the motion within the work: in the first movement, a single thread slowly and gradually unraveling to expose a rough, unpolished core; in the last movement, a tightly wound-up coil, and the energy that explodes upon its release.
Wind/Unwind was commissioned in 2002 by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University and written for the Kylix New Music Ensemble.