Music / Chamber / In Flow
In Flow
for Wind Quintet
Commissioned by Arcadia Winds via their 2021 composition prize. Premiered by Arcadia Winds at Local Heroes: Destiny at the Melbourne Recital Centre, Wednesday 6 July 2022.
The title of this work has two meanings. It refers to the flow of music between the five instruments of the quintet, where ideas are gently passed around, played with and teased apart. It also refers to the state of mind most helpful to a creator of music, a state of complete absorption and concentration. When you find this state, if you're lucky, the music pours out of you, and you're just a passenger.
The question a composer is most often asked is 'what is your inspiration?' In this instance, my inspiration is in the music itself: I found a little fragment of an idea which begins in the flute and clarinet, and the entire piece flowed out from there. Each bar of music is inspired by its predecessor.