Hidden Motives will receive two performances - by the New York New Music Ensemble (Feb 14) in New York, and in Boston by Collage (Feb 27). NYNME shares this music by David Froom, and also Hannah Lash, Max Grafe and Bekah Simms' New York Premiere- joint Barlow commission with Crash Ensemble and Eighth Blackbird.
Composer's note on Hidden Motives:
"Hidden Motives" a quintet for Flute, Clarinet/Bscl, Violin, Cello, and Piano was commissioned for the 21st Century Consort's 2018-2019 season by Andy and Janice Molchon to honor their 50th wedding anniversary. The premiere performance, October 20, 2018, was planned to connect to an exhibition of work by Trevor Paglen at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Paglen's images include landscapes upon which have been imposed secret governmental
instruments of surveillance that present as violations of the peaceful scenery while, from certain perspectives, contributing to a kind of eerie beauty. My work (seven movement-like sections lasting altogether 11 minutes) unfolds motives of pitch, rhythm, tempo, timbre, and register that generate a set of fierce initial gestures, then bury themselves beneath the surface, reemerging (verbatim or transformed) in a variety of postures to provide a sense of overall coherence while disrupting the peace of straightforward expectations.
