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:
May 25, 2001 by Eugenia Zukerman, flute, and the National Symphony of Mexico, Enrique Diemecke, conductor, in Mexico City, Mexico

Available From:
Oxford University Press (rental)

Composer's Notes:
The Atmosphere As a Fluid System suggests 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.