Richochet
for Electric Flute and Concert Band
(1995) 6:00
(Wind Band: Solo flute pc 2,2,3 bcl, 2, 2atb sx/4,4,3,euph,tb,6 perc.)
Commissioned by the Norwood High School Band
Level: High School
Richochet (ricochet) "the motion made by an object that skips one or more times in moving over the surface of a flat object." Who hasn't heard the violent whine of the cavalry's' bullets as they ricochet off the boulders and stones? The abrupt change of direction, with the accompanying Doppler-drop change of pitch, served as inspiration for this piece, entitled with an older spelling of the word as tribute to the older compositional techniques used within.
The idea of ricochet presents itself in the transitions from one section to the next in this one-movement but four-part composition. No gentle transitions; no traditional modulations. Rather, a crash, a boom, and an abrupt change of direction, accompanied by a (Doppler-like?) shift in key, scale, mode, or timbre. The harmonic language moves from the world of the diminished through minor and major to the world of the augmented. One hears the solo flute early on, presenting some tricky scalar motives, answered in part by the ensemble. Part 2 is old-fashioned counterpoint, but not quite as clean and easy to hear as real Baroque fugal writing. Here the harmonies are thick and dissonant, which set the gentle solo flute in opposition to the ever-thickening pile-up of fugal voice entries. The solo flute must struggle to "stay afloat," a situation which may only partially be assisted by the amplification. The third Part calls for some trick-and-fancy flute articulation. The solo flute and percussion participate in a bizarre Caribbean-sounding stretto, which builds to include the entire ensemble. Part four presents pieces of all the previous material, but now set in the ever-widening area of major to augmented scales. Rather than end with a bang, the final ricochets appears at the hands of bottle-wielding brass, and give way to a gentle exchange between the solo flute and the vibraphone.
