Embracing the Wind (1999)
for flute, viola and harp

Duration: 10'00"
Instrumentation: flute (doubling alto flute), viola and harp
Partially Funded by the Cornell Council for the Arts.
Premiere: DMA Recital, Cornell University, Barnes Hall, Ithaca, NY, April 2, 2000.
Publisher: Robert Paterson Music (ASCAP)

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Program Notes

My original inspiration for this piece was the image of an Olympic athlete running against the wind. The process of writing this work eventually shifted me to more abstract thoughts, such as the concept of creating music that sounds flexible and has wind-like, ebb-and-flow qualities. I tried to achieve this by creating “musical zephyrs” from repeated motives, and by creating smooth phrases that utilize gradual dynamic swells and subtle tempo fluxuations. In this sense, Embracing the Wind is perhaps more “minimalist” and “romantic” than many of my other pieces: minimalist in that cells that are repeated over and over again as textural background, romantic in that the form is intentionally less severe and also has a narrative, structural quality.

– Robert Paterson