David Froom

Flute, Clarinet (Doubling Bass Clarinet), Violin, Cello, and Piano

Composer's Note:

"Hiddien Motives" was commissioned for the 21st Century Consort's 2018-2019 season by Andy andJanice Molchon to honor of 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 coherance while disrupting the peace of straigthforward expectations.