Sonnet 2 (1999)
for solo flute
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John McMurtery, flute
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Sonnet 2, lasting approximately six minutes, was commissioned—by a payment of lunch at Taco Bell, a 7-11 Slurpee, and a fresh can of tennis balls—in 1999 by John McMurtery, who has since lectured and written extensively about the work: a detailed analysis can be found in his Juilliard DMA dissertation. The work comprises two distinct strands of musical information unfolding simultaneously on three hierarchical time-scales: small-scale intervallic relationships, projected isomorphically in the domains of both pitch and rhythm, are also evidenced in the forms of broader phrase groups and, ultimately, in the large-scale framework that informs the entire composition. Because of the work’s bi-linear structure, the performer is often required to juggle the two strands of musical information at once, evidenced most dramatically by numerous passages that interpolate staccato figures into legato notes, creating an aural illusion of polyphony. Counterpoint is also illuminated by partitions of pitch, register, dynamic, and articulation.