knock, turn (2023)

World Premiere (1st movement) – February 17, 2023

Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia Orchestra

Michael Adelson, conductor

Samuel Torres, congas

 

Is knock, turn a nocturne? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. However, I’d say it’s my own take at a work for congas and orchestra. The first movement, chaud, lent, is a hot, slow-cooked potpourri of musical flavors to which the congas react and respond. The congas travel through various textural and harmonic environments in which the boundaries between pulse and non-pulse, quotation and so-called “original” material, and “chaos” and “order” are blurred. The 2nd and 3rd movements are in the process of being composed, decomposed, constructed, deconstructed, contextualized, decontextualized, and recontextualized. The piece was written for and is dedicated to Samuel Torres.

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