Music

Grade: 6
Duration: 4'30"
Instrumentation
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Loose Id for Orchestra (1996)

Premiered by the Juilliard Symphony, Alice Tully Hall, NY, April 1st, 1997, Jeff Milarsky, conductor.

Selected for the American Composers Forum Plymouth Reading Session.

This is an adaptation and expansion of the brass quintet version for orchestra (piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb, Bb bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabasson, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in Bb, 3 trombones [2 tenor, 1 bass], tuba, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, contrabass, 3 percussion, timpani [4 drums]).

Program Note:

Id: "In Freud's theory, the source of instinctual energy, which works on the pleasure principle."

This piece is an abstract realization in sound of the energy of the Id. Unleashed, without the counterbalance of Ego or Superego, the Id generates unbridled instinctual energy, resulting in an orgiastic frenzy. Distinct from a state of dementia, this piece represents a thoroughly lucid and intentional rampage of self-indulgence.

"It's orchestrated like a virtuoso!" - Samuel Adler, after hearing a recording of the piece in 1997

"It out-"Infernal Machines" [Christopher Rouse's] "The Infernal Machine'! - Samuel Adler, after hearing it live, October, 2005

Orchestra

Band

Mixed