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Flute Quartet No. 2
Many years ago, my first composition teacher, Robert Beadell at the University of Nebraska, instructed me always to write for specific instruments and performances. He told me, "When you know who will play the work and where, it makes the composition process easier". So, I was particularly pleased when Sandy Robinson asked me to write a composition especially of the Piedmont Chamber Players.
I decided to write a Flute Quartet, for a combination of instruments which was very popular in the late 18th century, but which has been almost totally neglected since then. The sound of the flute along with the strings gives a lightness to the ensemble which is suggestive of a divertimento or a serenade.
With this thought in mind, I wrote three relatively short movements. The outer ones have a dance-like character and the middle movement is song-like, as an aria for the flute with strings. The work as a whole follows my aesthetic point of view of the last few years in which I concentrate on tuneful melodies and uncomplicated rhythms and harmonies... that is, music that does not need complex analytical explanations before the performance in order to be understood and enjoyed.
This work has not yet been recorded professionally.
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