Windfall

In totality, Windfall is an exploration of gestures in space. Instruments are strung together into sweeping masses of sound that move around the ensemble. These larger sound masses are additionally paired with far more short, staccato gestures that I like to refer to as grains. Eventually, these textures mix and transform as the piece develops, before coalescing once again by the piece’s end.

The piece is structured around a series of melodic solos, featuring the flugelhorn, alto saxophone, bassoon, and bass clarinet. These linear ideas presented in the featured instruments were used as the basis to construct the longer gestures found in the rest of the ensemble. The harmonic language is also based largely on these featured instruments, creating larger scalar ideas from the melodic fragments and building harmonic color through quartal and quintal chords.

You can check out the score below with a midi rendition. You can also download a PDF of the score via my store for free!