Instrumentation: Large orchestra (2+Pic.3(III=EH).2(II=E-flat)+BCl.2+Cbsn. - 4.3.3.1 - timp.perc(3) - pno/Kbd. - hp. - strings
First Performance: Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Conducted by Gil Rose, Oct. 25 2024, Lindemann Performing Arts Center, Brown University, Providence
Duration: 16 minutes
In poetry, a volta is a turn, a sudden shift in attitude, subject, form of address, even genre. A rhetorical pivot. In a Petrarchan sonnet this often occurs between the octave and the sestet, and in Shakespeare at the final couplet, which offers a new point of view while looking backwards. And though timing, convention, and tradition dictate that the reader should anticipate the volta's arrival, it often catches one off guard, frequently forming the emotional crux or cathartic moment of the poem.
I sketched this piece unprompted and uncommissioned over a two-week burst during the fall of 2022, turning away from other projects at hand and eschewing rationality and practicality. Over the next two summers, and following two nine-month stretches of inactivity, I finally completed the orchestration in July 2024. The first half of the piece is characterized by dramatic and volatile events, including melodies that are spun out of turbulence, dance-like passages, and dense columns of chords. While there is an indeed a dramatic shift toward an interior, private world about halfway through the piece, the ending was left open until the last stage of writing. It took another turn, affected by personal and world events, an inexorable accumulation recalling the opening that threatens to come full circle, but swiftly swerves away once more.