What's Next?

Instrumentation: flute, bassoon and piano

Year: 2014

Duration: 8 minutes

Program Note:
Typically when I conceive of a piece of music, I have a detailed plan about how the piece will unfold.   With What’s Next?, I wanted to try and free myself of this method.  I started with only an idea of how the piece would begin and how it would end but no idea of what would happen in between.   I set out then from the beginning and wrote in a stream of consciousness style. I simply asked the question: “what’s next?”  As a result, motives and ideas do not recur in a traditional manner.  Rather, any moment is only referential with regard to what came immediately before and after it.  For me, the form of the piece is akin to getting in your car and driving cross-country.  You start in one environment and gradually transition into completely new environments without ever really being conscious about where exactly the switch occurred.  What’s Next? was written for bassoonist Mike Harley and was premiered in January 2015.