SHARDS (In-Progress)

for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano

Written: Complete Work In-Progress
Projected Duration: ca. 9'
Instrumentation: chamber sextet (flute [doubling piccolo], clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano)
First movement written in 2013 for Ensemble Aleph's 30th Anniversary Birthday Celebration Concert
First Movement World Premiere: Paris, France, June, 2013.
Publisher: Bill Holab Music

PROGRAM NOTE (In-Progress)

The first movement of Shards (originally titled Shard) was written in honor of Ensemble Aleph's thirtieth anniversary. The ensemble asked composers they have worked with in the past to write pieces up to thirty-seconds in length, to be premiered during their thirtieth anniversary birthday celebration concert in Paris. I very much enjoyed working with the ensemble as one of the composers chosen for their Annual International Composer's Forum, so I was happy to oblige.

After writing this initial "shard," I decided to turn it into Shards, a multi-movement work in which all of the movements are very small, like shards of glass, and the material for each movement is generated out of small motivic cells. The title and inspiration for the piece are also tied to my love of sounds made from glass instruments, so I ask the percussionist to use glass wind chimes and a few other glass instruments in a few of the movements.