émoi [2010]

for bass flute

duration :: 11’

Commissioned by the BMI Foundation Inc. Carlos Surinach Fund for Concert Artists Guild and written for Claire Chase

First performance :: Claire Chase — Roulette (Brooklyn, NY), 8 March 2013

Recording :: Richard Craig :: Metier MSV 28540 [ label | amazon | spotify ]

Score published by Edition Gravis.

[ Rachel Beetz :: studio recording, 14 February 2014 ]

émoi (esmai, confusion, agitation…) – dismay, “the most profound form of being disturbed in the dimension of movement” (Lacan); ex-magere, to deprive of powers, of strength, of energy; to make so it cannot be done.  Et moi.

All of this is a way of approaching the two main concerns of this work, as of my work in general: the relationship of local musical material to unsuitable durational contexts, the inhibition, dismay, the deprivation of forced repetition, restatement, being bled into silence by durational pressure; and the instability of the exuberantly excessive notation’s relationship to instrument and to instrumentalist, the removal of mastery, a profound form of being disturbed.  And moi: the performer and her instrument, the breath and throat that articulate everything.