Program Note

This piece is a progression from a very relaxing atmosphere to an increasingly tense one. It begins with soft, slow music built out of a modal pitch collection and gradually changes into loud, fast music using all twelve pitches, with short interludes returning to the slower music. A 12 note row is used as a reference from which most of the melodic shapes are derived, particularly in the more chromatic sections. The row is used in its complete form occasionally, but more frequently in fragments. Two ideas which are focal points of the piece are the rising major second, and repeated pitches.