ATMOSPHERE AS A FLUID SYSTEM, THE (CHAMBER ORCHESTRA VERSION)


Instrumentation:
Flute, 3 percussion: [1 - vibraphone, wood block, sleigh bells], [2 - marimba, orchestra bells], [3 - bongos, tom-tom (low), tam-tam (medium), wood block, suspended cymbals, temple blocks, snare drum, orchestra bells, chimes (C#, G#, D#)], strings

Duration: 20 minutes

Premiere:
Premiered by Eugenia Zukerman, Flute, with The National Symphony of Mexico, Enrique Diemecke conductor in Mexico City (May 25, 2001) and Washington DC (June 2, 2001).

Available From:
OUP (rental)

Composer's Notes:

The Atmosphere As a Fluid Systemsuggests music which, while intricately interconnected, forms a gesture of fluid upward motion.  There is no prescribed traditional musical form in which the music develops.  Rather, as the description form the Encyclopaedia Britannica suggests, the work is a discovery of flow and motion as form – ever changing, as the forces which work with it exert their influences.

“Only in the present century has the atmosphere been seen as a large fluid system, the behaviour of which is primarily determined by the need for a poleward transfer of heat.”

                                                                                             …Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume XII, Macropaedia

Additional Information:
This is the original chamber orchestra version of the piece. There is also a full orchestra version.