Images for Flute and Harp

Performer interaction/no bar lines polymetric;
composer's note:
Images for Flute and Harp was conceived while I was on a flight from the American Midwest to the West Coast. I was struck by images of the land from the airplane, images of forests and lakes in different shapes, images of fields, rectangular and perfectly round, microscopic networks of roads in spider web designs and cities appearing like wildflowers in time-lapse photography. These images formed a patchwork design woven by nature and refined by men and women, an image of an American patchwork quilt on an enormous scale. The music is freely atonal, consisting of linear melodic gestures and blocks of sonorities that intersect, overlap, and are segmented, as is the image of the landscape. The piece is to be played “freely, with a majestic send to time” and contains very few bar lines or time signatures. Metronome markings are given as a guide. There are three repeating patterns that use time signatures, one of which has the flute in 6/4 and the harp in 7/4, each with its own metronome marking.