Shards of Glass (1989)

Our Description

Unlike many of the flute solos written during this Century, Shards of Glass does not aim at breaking new ground. Avoided are the types of extended coloristic techniques (such as multiphonics and key clicks) that have largely typecast this genre as a vehicle of the avant-garde. Shards of Glass focuses more on issues of melodic invention than exotic color.

Written in 1989 for Tim Lane, Shards' descriptive title was conceived as a metaphor that mirror's the work's fragmented arabesque-like nature. But unlike Gubaidulina's Sounds of the Forest, Shards of Glass - which might convey a condensed multi-movement 19th century Sonata - remains a thoroughly abstract work; its fast outer movements, which contain fragments of lyrical motifs tightly strung together, bookend a weightier, more slowly unfolding central Adagio.

If Shards sounds "romantic", it is probably due in part to its tonal language. Perhaps the most overtly romantic movement, the bravura finale (fancifully described by one listener as a klezmer band run amok) suggests a type of orientalism peculiar to late-romantic Russian music.

Shards of Glass received its first performance by Tim Lane in 1991 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and has been widely performed throughout the United States and Europe.

- from liner notes to Shards of Glass, a CD produced by Zuma Records Inc., 275 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024 USA.

Shards of Glass is a First Prize winning composition in the 1996 National Flute Association Competition for Newly Published Flute Music.

Item Details

Instrumentation

• Part 1: Flute