Instrumentation: Orchestra
Duration: 7 minutes
Recording Available: Yes
Performed: Yes
Catalog ID: RE1006
View PDF Score
Purchase Score
On the Edge was commissioned by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra which
in 2001 acquired four new timpani. The conditions surrounding this composition
afforded me the opportunity to write a work that would feature a very talented 17
year old timpanist.
On the Edge deals with two similar themes presented separately. These melodies
coalesce and collide in the final section of the piece and continue to build a
thick climactic texture until the end. My goal was to present a colorful
orchestration at the end of the piece where these themes spiral through different
instruments, thus blurring the original two melodies, and in a sense,
synthesizing one texture and theme which is practically new, but related to the
original two themes.
2002 was a very difficult time for my entire family. At one point, my mother
commented that she felt like at any moment, she "would explode." For months we were "On the Edge" of these emotional and physical explosions. My hope, is that the listeners experience an emotional journey which leaves them refreshed. As we
released (or exploded), we all found calm -- It helped us endure.