Judith Shatin

Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, Viola, and Cello

Composer's Note:

Spin is a one-movement piece whose action manifests the meaning of its title at a variety of levels. The accented chords that form the harmonic pillars unfold and collapse back into themselves in a slow-motion spin. The quick, dancing motifs are spun around the pairs and trios of instrument groupings in the sextet. The spinning motifs form the axis around which the large-scale motion revolves. The piece plays with this underlying notion at all levels, and was inspired by the multilevel use of the triangle in I.M. Pei’s design of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

In Spin, the music moves between harmonic pillars that create a crescendo of consonance. There are two large sections, the second of which is a twirled version of the first. Each large section contains the harmonic pillars and dancing motif, a habanera-like dance, and a closing section that whirls like a top.

Spin was commissioned by the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East and was composed at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. It was premiered on 8/9/97 by participants of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East in Bennington, VT and has been recorded on the North/South Album Reflections (N/S R 1046).