Thorn

My first idea for thorn was to embed a single spike somewhere in the middle of a long, slow, quiet melody. I thought that the listener would then spend the first part of the piece in fear and the second part in shock, and this would change the ways that the tune would be perceived. The problem with this was that the spike turned out to be the most interesting part of the piece, and, ultimately, I couldn’t resist the temptation to add many, many more of them.

—David Lang

I wanted to write a piece in which a large amount of effort was expended to go a very small distance. ''short fall'' is that piece. Underneath all the activity in ''short fall'' the actual notes fall only very slightly. It is as if the surface is so active that the subtle effects of gravity pass (almost) unnoticed.

''short fall'' was written for the Pearls Before Swine Experience.

It is dedicated to Lynn Garon.

—David Lang

''frag'' is an abbreviation for fragmentation bomb, thought the music is more subversive than revolutionary. Written in 1984, the work attempts to completely demystify itself, laying bare all its technique for any listener to comprehend. The music consists of a single melodic line, presented in a sort of mutating unison by the trio of flute, oboe, and cello (the latter in very high register pizzicato). Only near the end does a simple counterpoint emerge between a pointillistic flute and a slow singing line in the other two instruments, as though a new sort of music is beginning to evolve out of the primal monophony which preceded it.

(from: Broken Consort, recording of Frag by Cynus Ensemble, CRI CD 834)