While by now the notion of concerto as metaphor for the struggle between the individual and the collective is perhaps strained, I think it still provides a good frame for understanding the narrative of such a work. Instruments become then characters and, on a larger scale, their interaction over the course of a composition belies a certain humanity beyond the abstract world of tones. This idea of characters at play, whether in something as simple as basic counterpoint or something more complex, such as layers of musical sound, is a concept I have been working with in my composition for some time now.

In composing my Chamber Concerto I hoped to explore a "counterpoint of layers"; instead of setting individual notes against each other, I aimed to set composites against each other. In my concerto, the individual members of the orchestra coalesce into groups to assail or assist the violin soloist in a lyrical struggle with the ensemble as a whole and with its nemesis, the more mechanical piano. The individual struggles against and attempts to sway the collective, the collective does the same for the individual.

The concerto was composed over a two year period punctured by a nearly one year hiatus when I stopped composing all together.

Ostrava
August, 2003