Laws of Motion

Scored for flute, clarinet, viola, cello and piano, Laws of Motion features the cello as a protagonist, though it in no way resembles a concerto-like approach to treatment or form. Excepting the brief introduction played by the other four instruments, the cello is nearly always a central figure, and presents all the important musical ideas in the piece, sometimes as a soloist, at other times in the context of a duet with one of the other instruments as a more or less equal partner. Thus shortly after the cello first enters, it joins forces with the viola in a series of espressivo statements. As the music increases in speed, the piano enters into an energetic episode with the cello culminating in the piece’s first climax. Later first the clarinet and then the flute are the cello’s duet partners in a quiet arioso passage. The piece culminates in a passage of dizzyingly complex counterpoint whose energy culminates, and then gradually subsides, giving way to the lyrical, vanishing misterioso music of the liesurely, concluding coda. Laws of Motion was composed with the generous support of the Edward MacDowell Colony and the Centro Studii Liguri per Arte e Lettere.