Program Notes

amalgams is comprised of various aesthetic and stylistic combinations - sometimes disparate, sometimes unified - within a duet of flute and piano. The first movement, Jack in the Squeeze Box, is my imagining of a squeeze box soloist accompanied by a ratchet and comb style music box, specifically the sort found in the ageless Jack-in-the-Box toy. The second movement, A Moments Piece, is a spacious, reflective collection of breath-like, pulseless gestures with flute and piano behaving largely as one. The final movement, Tantrum is a frantic trading of fits and blows, always on the verge of chaos, but never completely losing control.

amalgams was composed for and premiered by flutist Linda Chatterton and pianist Matthew McCright, October of 2014 at
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Minneapolis and Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota.