Seventh Sun
Daniel Silver, Bass Clarinet

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Seventh Sun was written in my composition lessons during the fall of 1997, and was premiered on the Towson Composer's Concert by Daniel Silver in the following spring. I began working on this piece by writing two short melodic fragments that were closely related. The first one was in a loose, free time frame, and the second was an energized pulsating version of the first. I took these two brief ideas, and sketched as many different variations as I could think of. I used these sketches as the foundation for the piece. The nature of the original two ideas suggested a large scale form of 'A - B,' where 'A' is in the meandering time frame and 'B' was rhythmic and pulsated. This form borrows from Indian raga, which often introduces the materials in a similar metrically free statement before the more rhythmical patterns more closely associated with raga. The second part of the formal design occurs in the 'B' section. This section is stated. Then it is stated again, only reduced down to more of the key elements. Then it is presented again in an even more reduced version. The piece goes through four reductions before arriving at one extremely compressed and condensed version of the original, which has now evolved from the materials presented in the 'A' section into something completely new, yet strangely related. The overall form of the piece could then be considered as: Presentation of the materials in a nacient form.  Explanation of materials; unfolding of the piece.  Slow reduction of the piece that extracts a new set of essential elements that are related to, but different than the original materials. Special thanks to Daniel Silver, an outstanding clarinetist who gave the piece life and breath.