Worm Music  2000 (3:40)

Fl, Cl, Pno, 2 Vln, Vla, Vc

Premiered by ensemble counter)induction, Columbia University, Dec. 2000

Worm Music is a short reflection on death, the relentless continuity of life and the way it rapidly reshapes the world.  I have tried to capture these ideas somewhat literally in the melting away of some melodies, the constant interruption and replacement of one thing by another, and the interweaving of familiar melodic material with more chaotic material, like recognizable fragments in soil.  Worms are a symbol of both degradation and fertilization, and can be heard in the piece in motives that wind around each other, in the generally fluid movement of fragments over others, and in the cutting and regeneration of motives.  The piece travels far from the character of its opening, and there is a pause where it seems the final element has died, but soon the worms are back to show that life, not death, has the final word.