Ensemble

Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, and Piano

Duration

Three movements, approx. 14 minutes.

I. One (Approx. 5 minutes)
II. Two (Approx. 6 minutes)
III. Three (Approx. 3 minutes)

Recording

❦

Score

Notes

I love writing incidental music for plays. From the intimate, collaborative process to the thrill of live performance, every part of composing for the theatre excites me. As a student composer, I was deeply struck by the evocative, gorgeous music of film composers like James Horner, Anne Dudley, and Tan Dun. But my first plays were scored for tiny ensembles — just 3 to 5 performers, usually a mix of winds, strings, and keyboard, with the winds almost always doubling. I relished giving directors and actors their own mini orchestra, and found that this scale of instrumentation could be as grand as it was intimate.

That notion is the inspiration behind my concert work, Limelight, which I often describe as “incidental music for a play that exists in each listener’s mind.” In music school, we’d often draw a line between “absolute music” and “programmatic music,” but I’ve always found the space between the two to be the best kind of composer’s playground. Responding to a script, to actors, costumes, and set design is its own thrill — but I’m equally drawn to writing and listening to music that tells its own story. With concert music especially, I’m always curious to hear what listeners imagined while they listened: what the music reminded them of, what stories took shape in their minds.

The stage is set and the curtain’s up. Your imagination takes it from here!

World Premiere

August 2, 2013 at Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina by Rachel Woolf, Claire Werling, James Thompson, Adrienne Steely, and Rachel Robin