Winter aconites

Winter aconites is the first of my "little bulb" pieces for instruments and tape. The instrument parts in these works are largely sustained tones; the tape parts are soft, chiming sounds with irregular attacks that create a space within which the instrumentalists perform.

Site for Winter aconites at the AMC Online Library (includes audio and an excerpt of the score)

The winter aconite is a species of flowering bulb (Eranthis hyemalis). Its small, yellow, buttercup-like flowers are among the very first to appear each year; in the northeast it can bloom as early as February, while there is still snow on the ground. Like so many of the little early bulbs, winter aconites will naturalize -- they will propagate themselves and form large colonies.

This piece, Winter Aconites, was commissioned by The ASCAP Foundation and the Bang On A Can Festival in memory of John Cage. Shortly after I began work on it (and before it had a title), I had a dream in which I brought a pot of winter aconite flowers to Cage. He was delighted -- he loved flowers and plants -- and later during my visit, we made sandwiches with some of the blooms (I have no idea whether the blooms of winter aconites are actually edible or not). Like the flowers in my dream, this piece is a gift for John Cage.

Winter Aconites was composed in 1993; the tape part was made at the Winham Laboratory of Princeton University.

An excerpt from the Princeton University Composer's Ensemble performance of Winter aconites is available from NewMusicJukebox here.

An excerpt of the score in PDF format is also available at the AMC Online Library here.

On Le chant du monde: Cultures electroniques 10 (1997). A concert recording from Princeton University.