To Boston for Sex
for pierrot sextet or septet
8 minutes
Initially subtitled "a velocitic car piece,” To Boston for Sex is like a brusque and dangerous car ride into the night; a serpentine and primitive moto perpetuo teeming with remembered teen angst and jealousy (I wrote the piece when I was 17), kind of like new music screamo.
Now, many years later, having overcome those ridiculous angst-ridden years, I find it fascinating how much style from this piece has surprisingly informed much of my later and current music. Unlike now, where I prefer to create heterophonic textures that are blurred, distorted and nuanced, the stark monophony of To Boston for Sex is raw, muscular and primitively rude.
SCORING:
Version 1 (Pierrot Sextet):
Flute, Clarinet (plays Eb, Bb and Bb Bass) or Saxophone (Alto and Bari), Percussion (Marimba & Bongo), Piano, Violin, Violoncello
Version 2 (Original Septet Version):
Flute, Alto Saxophone (doubles Bari), Percussion (Timpani, Marimba, Bongo), Piano, Violin, Violoncello, Contrabass
PREMIERE:
27 June 1998
Ensemble: 451
Ars Nova 4 Festival — Buffalo, NY
