The Veins of Marble (2000/2013)

For flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, mandolin, guitar, harp, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass.

2013 version for flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, cimbalom, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass. 10 minutes.

Commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam, this piece is dedicated to The Nieuw Ensemble and Brian Ferneyhough. Composed 2000, La Jolla, CA.

Premiered January 2000 Ed Spaanjard conducting, Den Haag, Amsterdam and Groningen.

Program Note:

The twelve person ensemble is divided into three groups of four musicians each; the three winds and piano, mandolin/guitar/harp and percussion, and four strings. Furthermore, each group is confined to a musical material radically different from the other sub-groups. I have layered all three materials so they constantly float through one another; even though, as the title evokes, each musical material is rigid in its evolution, or path, similar to the hairline cracks of marble.

2013 Version commercially released on Richard Carrick: Cycles of Evolution by New World Records #80759.

Jury Selection for ISCM WORLD MUSIC DAYS 2004 - Switzerland. Performed by Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Pierre Monot conducting.