Circles
INSTRUMENTATION
solo bassoon
YEAR OF COMPOSITION
2018. Revised in 2019.
DURATION
13 mins
Commissioned by the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
WORLD PREMIERE
5 June 2018. Buntrock Hall, Symphony Center. Chicago, IL, USA | Midori Samson, bassoon
AUDIO RECORDING (2018 VERSION)
Midori Samson, bassoon
University of Wisconsin-Madison, November 21, 2019
PROGRAMME NOTE
“...The eye is the first circle; the horizon
which it forms is the second;
and throughout nature this
primary figure is repeated without end…”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Circles" (1841)
Circles was inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay of the same name, in which he discusses the various metaphorical circles that can be found in life, and society. I did not try to stick too closely to it as model for the work, though. Instead, I thought about the very basic idea of circles and cycles. A big part of such circles is the lack of noticeable development which, again, Emerson touches on in his essay. As a response, I tried to write a piece in which I utilised two motifs (if I can even call them that) that do not seem to move logically from one point to the next are therefore always in a state of development.
There is no meaningful end point.