The Year of the Rabbit  for Flute Quartet (or Ensemble) (7½')

PROGRAM NOTES

In 1997 I had the fascinating experience of visiting the Taiwan Palace Museum, which holds the majority of art collected from both Taiwan and mainland China from the past several thousand years. This six-story building rotates its display every three months, and the collection is so large that it takes 30 years to show everything.

Seeing the works displayed in June 1997, I was most taken by the many carvings and prints dedicated to the Asian Zodiac cycle.  Many artists in many media and styles have depicted the twelve-year animal cycle as a set of stylized carvings, and I became eager to create a musical parallel. 

In late January 1999, the flutist-composer Alexandra Molnar-Suhajda asked if I had any new flute choir music she could premiere at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Festival in February. I didn’t, but it struck me that a flute choir would be good to portray the Year of the Rabbit, and after all, her request came at the weekend of the Chinese New Year celebration, ushering in the Year of the Rabbit.  The music, in various ways, pays homage to many Rabbits in my family, to rabbits in general, and to the Chinese astrological sayings about people born in the Year of the Rabbit.

THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT is dedicated to Alexandra Molnar-Suhajda, who (as I later discovered) was also born in the Year of the Rabbit.

PERFORMANCE SUGGESTIONS

THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT may be performed by a quartet for bouncy lightness, or with ensemble allowing multiple players for solo/tutti contrasts and staggered breathing. Players may even take turns resting in quieter passages, particularly in the first half of the piece, to facilitate breathing and endurance.

The main tempo must always stay brisk, even if it means skipping an occasional note!  While keeping the character of the music, this means little time between “sneak breath” points. When sneaking a breath after a quarter note, this should be taken only after the whole pattern "quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter," and not after the first quarter note of that rhythm.

It is fine and useful to add some slurs that aren't in the printed edition, particularly where there are many tongued triplets -- "slur 2, tongue 1" works well to keep the music hopping while staying bouncy.

The composer suggests these spots for "slur 2, tongue 1" triplets. While they are all optional, the whole quartet should be uniform in where slurs are added.
bar 10, beats 3&4 (but not beat 2)
bar 68, beats 3&4
bar 90, beat 4
bar 92, beat 2
bar 95, only beats 3&4 in Flute 2
bar 97, beats 2&4, possibly also beat 3
bar 99, beats 2&4, possibly also beat 3
bar 260, beat 4, possibly also beat 3
bar 261 is best without adding slurs, but it's better to include them than to lose momentum