Update Title: 1B128822-F2A3-4048-B9E7-C9A2D7B4AB46

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Dance of Wild Angels is a rondo--an early dance form traditionally characterized by the repetition of a main theme separated by episodes of a contrasting nature.  Naturally I took great liberty with the form, but the reoccurences of the highly rhythmic, almost obsessive main theme are unmistakable.  One of the challenges was to see in what subtle ways I could reintroduce the theme after an episode, or even transform its character while maintaining its identity.

The 'somewhat slow' introduction which opens the work, a bass clarinet solo accompanied by the high strings in fifths and a subtle ostinato pattern in the piano, not only sets up the first occurrence of the main dance theme, but also provides the melodic and gestural material for most of the transitions between the main theme and the episodes, and eventually becomes the basis for an entire episode.

Following the introduction, there are four statements of the main theme:  the first is straightforward; the second begins like the first but becomes increasingly dissonant and compulsive; the third, transformed in character, is gentle, lyrical and waltz-like; and the final statement, the coda, is a 'scherzo macabre.'

The contrast of musical ideas in Dance of Wild Angels--some refined and some frenzied--brings to mind the image of dancing angels going a little crazy.

The work was commissioned by Michael and Rena Gordon for the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, and was premiered by them in 1990.  --Sheila Silver

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