Instrumentation: violin, cello, piano
Premiered by: Callisto Ensemble. Revised version premiered by Longleash.
Duration: 11 minutes
premiere of revised version by Longleash, CUNY Graduate Center, November 2017
Flyway Detour was written in 2006 for the Jupiter Trio, and premiered in its original form in 2009 by the Callisto Ensemble in Chicago. A revised version, written for Longleash, was made in 2017. The work is in three sections, each with its unique characteristics, and the overall journey through them takes its inspiration in the natural phenomenon of migration (a flyway is a bird’s particular migration route). Avian migratory patterns are often thought of as either genetically encoded after generations of evolution or learned directly by example, with the aid of the sun or the earth’s magnetic field. Yet sometimes migrations go awry, either from unexpected natural elements like wind and rain, or when the “programming” works in reverse without explanation and the bird ends up in foreign lands. The “detour” part of the title refers to this, and has its analogues in various musical directions the work takes. Throughout, the resonances of the piano are integral to the harmonic logic and pacing of each section, and are reinforced or resisted by the strings.