ESCAPE VELOCITY (2016)
for Large Ensemble
1.0.1.0/1.1.1.0/pno/strings
Duration: 05:00 min.
Dedication: in memoriam Pierre Boulez
I was asked to write a piece dedicated to Pierre Boulez after he passed away in early 2016. I was inspired by the wonderful sound colors in Boulez’s Répons and decided to write a piece for large ensemble. Escape Velocity is the speed needed to break free of the Earth’s gravity. In the spirit of innovation, the form of the piece is experimental; It is a set of variations in which each of the variations is shorter by a ratio of 1.618:1, commonly known as the golden ratio. As the variations get shorter and shorter, the changes in the music accelerate. Towards the end of the piece, the speed of the music gets so fast that it literally “escapes” from the hands of the performers and vanishes into thin air.