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Deep Flowers (1996)

for solo alto saxophone or solo clarinet

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audio available on Jonathan Wintrinham's Walimai


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Deep Flowers (1996)
Program note


Robert Bly has said: "You can't appropriate the deep flowers of other cultures," and I believe him. Nevertheless, listening to the music of cultures in which we were not raised changes us. My own experiences with Indonesian music have often left me amazed by the beauty that exists beyond our own conventions; I find myself yearning to participate with my own composer's voice in the energy of the music, not to imitate or appropriate, but simply to reflect in my own singing some of the ways that listening has changed me. Hence, this piece shows the influence of the sound and texture of Sundanese katjapi/suling music from Western Java. The work was commissioned by Susan Cook, who premiered it at the World Saxophone Congress in Pesaro, Italy in 1992.