In Time for bass trombone, piano and percussion is a single movement, eight-minute work written in 1989. Commissioned by David Titcomb, the work was inspired by the events at Tiananmen Square and is dedicated to the victims. Although there is no direct linear program for In Time, the dramatic images of bravery against overwhelming military force and the sense of betrayal by the Chinese government to its people permeate the work.
Just Keep Moving was written as part of a concept album titled Chesapeake (Summit DCD 639). The album features the American Brass Quintet with two additional performers on percussion and piano. It is conceived as if one were attending a recital of the ABQ performing Breakaway for two trumpets and electronics, then Powell Trio for trombone, marimba and piano followed by Three Sides for trumpet, vibraphone and piano. Just Keep Moving is next with four movements of varied techniques and moods concluding with a wild drive to the climactic end. The title was suggested by a comment made by my mother, Betty, years before the creation of Just Keep Moving on how to deal with adversity and loss: “never stop, just keep moving”. The album or recital concludes with Chesapeake for brass quintet which aurally depicts three sailing trips on the Chesapeake Bay.
Dectet for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, 2 Violins, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass and Piano was written on commission for the Chicago Chamber Musicians and completed on September 23, 1998. It is an unusual work for me because there is no program or narrative impetus in any of the movements except for the second. This means that writing about the music becomes a bit pale compared to the actual sounds themselves, which stand quite well on their own.
I can reveal that the first movement begins ominously with a sustained pedal in the bass and ostinato figures in the other strings while the winds create long lines over this texture, but until you hear the actual sounds, this could describe a thousand other pieces. I could mention that the third movement owes its life to Shostakovich with his twisted waltzes and decadent nostalgia, but, until you experience the playfulness of my own twisted sequences, these are just words. I could describe how I love that the fourth movement has this energetic, indomitable quality with a percussive piano, swirling string lines and screaming winds, but you may think me merely boastful. The music only lives in the music. If words could truly duplicate or explain, we would not need to sing.
That said, I would like to tell a story around the second movement. After completing the first movement in the middle of August, 1998, I began the second. For several days I pondered what might follow the rather “fearful first” with little success. Then on Friday, August 21st, my family left me for the day to visit relatives and I struggled alone with my still born thoughts. Eventually, I wrote down my first tentative notes and before long I was furiously writing measure after measure. I stopped around four in the morning having completed what I later knew was most of the movement. The next day, when I studied what I had written, I was surprised to find that the movement was a traditional passacaglia with a four measure ground bass and a strong sense of loss and lament. Its simple directness puzzled me.
I continued revising the movement the next few days. The following Wednesday I received a call from a friend asking if I had heard about Alan. I said “no: and he proceeded to tell me that Alan Balter, conductor, clarinetist, and good friend, had died in Philadelphia on Friday night from complications after lung surgery. I was stunned not only for the terrible, wasteful loss of a dear friend but, also because I realized that the second movement was so urgently created at the moment of his passing. The lament now made sense and has added a reverent poignancy to the rest of the work.