for flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), violin, and violoncello. c. 7 minutes.
Dedicated to and composed for Hub New Music. Commissioned by the Philadelphia Student Composers Project. Sponsored by the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.
Program Note
This piece is a single movement, composed in the classical sonata form. Rāga Bhairav, and Rāga Yaman. Bhairav can be described as a major scale with altered notes: a flat 2 and flat 6, while Yaman is the Lydian mode, a major scale with a sharp 4. The most prominent note in Bhairav is the flat 6, while the most prominent note in Yaman is the natural 3. These notes serve as rest points. The two rāgas share few notes in common, providing the contrast and tension necessary for a sonata structure.
This piece is a single-movement sonata that traces the arc from one morning to the next. It follows the classical sonata form, in which the exposition goes from morning to evening, the development is a dreamlike night, and the recapitulation heralds the following morning. The harmonies and melodies of this piece are built from two North Indian rāgas: Bhairav and Yaman, which are respectively associated with the early morning and early evening.
This stems from the time theory that exists in Hindustāni classical music, which dictates at what time of day a particular rāga should be performed. Due to the differing characteristic notes and associations of each rāga, it was possible for me to re-contextualize the musical motifs. Toward the end, as the second morning takes hold, the colors of Bhairav affect the themes that were set in Yaman at the beginning of the piece, completing the journey.
The piece begins with a slow introduction that serves to introduce the mode and the notes of the rāga, evoking the improvisatory ālāpa that starts a performance of Hindustāni classical music. In the piece, Bhairav is the rāga for the main section of the opening and is also the rāga in which the piece ends. In the middle development section, the music transitions to rāga Yaman, or the Lydian mode (the major scale with a sharp fourth), which is used freely with rāga Bhairav. The rāgas are juxtaposed and can be heard simultaneously in different sections of the piece.
Score Sample
