Commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation
1st Performance: Aspen Music Festival, August, 1987
Gaudeamus Music Festival, Hilversum, Netherlands, VARA Radio Orchestra, Ernest Bour, cond.
Duration: 15:00
scored for sinfonietta: flute, oboe / bassett horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass.
The piece is based on amazing photographs of trailing vortices and other flow phenomena in Milton Van Dyke’s An Album of Fluid Mechanics.
Trailing vortices from a rectangular wing (An Album of Fluid Motion, Milton Van Dyke, 1982).
Trailing Vortices are spiraling wind streams formed when air passes over an airfoil. These graceful spirals suggest diverse musical interpretation.