Music by Daniel Dorff
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PROGRAM NOTES by the composer
The Year of the Rabbit for Flute Quartet (or Ensemble)
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.
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
last updated 1/5/08