ensemble chamber orchestra (1.2.2.0.2.-2.0.0.0-pft.perc[1]-strings)
duration 13 minutes
written winter 2010
written for Metropolis Ensemble
premièred May 20, 2010, New York, NY
published by Andres & Sons Bakery

I’ve been absorbing Brian Eno’s music for the past six years or so. He’s a major composer, one with two quite distinct sides: as an innovator who works in ambient and collage music, and as a quirky and crafty pop songwriter. It’s all interesting, but the really amazing things happen when these musical personalities overlap and wear away each others’ surfaces.

When Andrew Cyr asked me to write some music to pair with my piano concerto, Home Stretch, I immediately thought of the spacious, static opening section of the piece and the huge debt it owes to Eno’s harmonies and timbres. The result is a 19th-century style “orchestral paraphrase” on the subject of Eno’s music, focusing on the albums Before and After Science and Another Green World, with some Apollo by means of an introduction.

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