Box Gardens

‘Box Gardens’ is a set of three short pieces for flute and guitar. A box garden is quite simply a 5 x 5 square plot bordered by a simple wooden frame, within which one can plant anything they like. Like a typical box garden, each piece in the set was designed with clearly defined formal boundaries, and the varied materials within in each piece are drawn from many different sources such as Western art music, Tango, East Asian aesthetics, Flamenco, etc. The first movement, for example, has strong Tango influences, altered and distorted by an array of extended techniques and unusual harmonies and rhythms. The second is evocative of East Asian instruments such as the shakuhachi, gayagum and biwa, and the third draws from various folk idioms. In truth, it was both fun and liberating to plant such a motley assortment of seeds in each of my gardens and see what comes up. ‘Box Gardens’ was written for two fantastic musicians, Linda Chatterton and Maja Radovanlija, with my sincere gratitude and respect.