SKY ABOVE CLOUDS (2011)
For Orchestra (2.2.2.2 4.3.3.1 3 Perc Harp Piano/Celesta Strings)
Duration ca. 10:00
PROGRAM NOTES
This piece was written from May through September, 2011, following a lengthy flight at dusk, during which my plane flew to the west, artificially elongating that stunning moment when the sun hangs heavy on the horizon, on the brink of disappearing, reflecting like bronze on the tufted tips of atmosphere below, seeming almost static, a dusk that will never end.
In Sky Above Clouds, I strove to re-imagine that experience and allow listeners to hang there in the heavens with me as time stopped, then juxtapose that sensation with the fear and uncertainty which form the necessary counterpoint to such an extraordinary moment. What can be more exhilarating - or unnerving - than being suspended in a fragile cocoon when the expanse of the universe is so endless and crushing, and the barriers separating you from the other so exceedingly delicate.
This seems to me to represent the high and the low of the emotional experience, terror in the midst of such beauty, and as I worked to shape the piece, I began to wonder to what extent the latter could render meaningful the former, that is, whether it was possible that someone involved in a true crisis could find solace and comfort in an airplane porthole's panorama.
Premiered by the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra in Borden Auditorium, New York, NY (January 2012).
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