Off Beat (2008)
for orchestra
Approximate duration: ca. 4 mins.
Instrumentation:
picc,2,2,e.hr.,2,b.cl.,2,cbs. / 4,3,3,1 / Tp., 2 / strings
Premiere: pending
PROGRAM NOTES
Off Beat began life in 1989 as a “curtain raiser” composed for the Brooklyn-based Adam Alter Clarinet Quartet. As an inherently orchestral composer, my brain is always re-examining works in other genres for what they would sound like recast for a full orchestra. Off Beat seemed particularly suited to such a re-imagining, allowing me to fully exploit the work’s exuberance-based structure through a vastly broadened color palette.
This is, pure and simple, a good old fashioned concert starter, designed to perk up the ear and the spirit through a combination of orchestral panoply and kinetic virtuosity.