Winter I Was

About

Three Sketches for a Nocturne and Winter I Was are miniatures with the alto flute as a common element. They were written independently to each other and premiered as separate pieces by flautist Luca Manghi. For a subsequent concert, we decided to combine them one after the other without a break, and found the result to work so well that they seemed like they were always meant to be played together. They can still be performed as separate pieces, but I think of them as belonging alongside each other now. The poem Winter I Was is from Gregory O'Brien's collection of poems by the same name published by Victoria University Press in 1999. It is subtitled "in memory, Morton Feldman and John Cage" and was written in New York City after hearing of the death of John Cage. The pianist mentioned in the poem is Marianne Schroeder, who made various recordings of Cage and Feldman on the Hat Hut label. - Ben Hoadley