Fr.III.a–l

The following is mostly taken from the introductory pages of the score:

These twelve pieces are fragments written in one sitting (possibly with more or less extensive editing at a later date) during vacations, or on interesting dates, or at interesting locations in my day-to-day life. Although some large-scale structural connections exist (discussed in the next paragraph), each piece generally creates its own soundworld. I hope that each one is evocative in its own way, despite their often truncated and idiosyncratic characters. Think of them as mysterious archaeological artifacts of one person's transitory existence—abstract journal entires without clear-cut meaning.

Unlike most pieces in what I call my Fr.#.a… series, Fr.III.a–l has a unifying structural design for each movement and there is a clear "narrative" that gives significance to their chronological ordering. In set-class theory, there are twelve distinct combinations of three different notes that are possible. That is to say, if you look at every possible combination of three different notes, and eliminate superficial differences such as register and order, only twelve unique intervallic collections exist. I explored each of these trichordal set classes in order from the most compact to the least compact, with each movement serving as a meditation on both the harmonic and melodic possibilities of each one in turn. I further unified the movements by beginning and ending each movement with some kind of presentation of a special six-note collection called the all-trichord hexachord (012478). This set is very cool, because if one picks out individual three-note chunks of it one will find at least one representative of each of the twelve aforementioned trichords. Thus, each movement begins with a six-note event, but eventually three of those notes disappear from the texture, leaving behind the three-note set that the movement will proceed to explore. Similarly, each movement, ends with a simple presentation of its titular three-note set, which is then clouded by the reïintroduction of the three remaining notes of the all-trichord hexachord.

The pieces and the score have benefitted immeasurably due to the work, advice and eagle eyes of Martin Goldray. It was an enormous honor when he said he wanted to work on the pieces and perform them for our Sarah Lawrence students, and, in several rehearsals and e-mail conversations, he has made musical and notational suggestions that have been enthusiastically incorporated into the final draft. His musicality gave these pieces life, and I can't thank him enough.