 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Insecurity (and Other Agencies of Government) was performed by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra September 16, 2005. The first movement, expanded to a full orchestra, premiered at the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra's Under Construction series February 24, 2008. Many thanks to the Berkeley Symphony, and especially conductor Hugh Wolff, for a breathtaking performance and recording. Score and MP3 for the Berkeley Symphony are below for the first movement, and SFCCO recordings for the second and third movements follow.
BACKGROUND/PROGRAM NOTES: In retrospect, there were two events in 2003 that ultimately caused me to write Insecurity (and Other Agencies of Government) : On March 20, the United States invaded Iraq. For the first time in my life, I was profoundly terrified of our government, and international politics in general. On September 10, (American composer) Ned Rorem was interviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle. He said, "I don't think that nonvocal music can be proved to have any meaning whatsoever. It means whatever the composer tells you in words that it means."
For some reason, this interview lodged in my mind. And as I struggled with my feelings about the Iraq War and our "war on terror", I realized that I felt Mr. Norem's opinion was incomplete. I think we all know that music can broadly express emotions without words. But more importantly, with the composer's intentions stated (via a title or program notes), well-written nonvocal music can in fact go beyond language; it can articulate complex feelings that simply have no counterpart in mere words.
Insecurity was inspired by the role terrorism currently plays in our society. It is written in three movements named after not-so-whimsical governmental agencies. "Under Construction" will perform the first movement tonight, "Insecurity". The other movements are entitled, "The Ministry of Peace" and "Counterintelligence". Consistent with my original reaction to Mr. Rorem's inverview, most of the textual instructions in the score are very explicit emotionally but require significant interpretation by the conductor and orchestra, e.g, "confused", "angry", "disturbed", "alarmed", "shellshocked", "impaired", and "terrified". So although this is nonvocal music, the context for both the audience and musician is quite clear. It is my hope that the emotions I struggled with in 2003 (and beyond!) have found an outlet more eloquent than the English language.
I. Insecurity (~5min) 
II. The Ministry of Peace (~6min)
III. Counterintelligence (~5min)