I Move Among Golden Clouds
composed in 2009
for flute, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, marimba, xylophone, and prepared piano
I Move Among Golden Clouds was really a response to some technical problems I had with composition; I realize this may not seem like a terribly stimulating genesis for a composition, but it is true. Basically, I was looking for a way to incorporate a more natural-seeming, improvisational rhythmic vocabulary into my music without resorting to prohibitively difficult rhythms. The answer was a lot of indeterminate patterns that gave the players a loose guideline of what to play. This was combined with standard notation in a number of different ways, and the end result was this piece, written for an odd mix of instruments.
The title was arrived upon after viewing a particularly striking Hoosier sunset. The usage of the "clouds" metaphor for textural music in general and Ligeti in particular was not lost on me.
