Beth Anderson

Preparation for the Dominant: outrunning the inevitable

Year: 1979

Duration (in minutes): 4 minutes

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: solo instrument other than piano, solo woodwind instrument

Instruments: flute, other

Publisher: available from the composer

Publisher website: www.beand.com

Video Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT0xZ_3_BJM

Description: Preparation for the Dominant: outrunning the inevitable is for ocarina solo originally but can be played on any C instrument; This is a process piece concerned with different ways of arriving at the dominant (V) in C#. The primary pitches are C#. D#, G#; D, D#, G#; E, D#, G#; A#, D#, G#. The performer chooses one pitch to omit throughout the piece and whenever that pitch is reached; the performer must hold the preceding pitch the duration of the omitted tone plus the preceding tone’s original duration. That is the source of the rhythmic changes within the piece. Otherwise all the tones would be of the same duration except for the final pitch. The etude-like quality derives from a filling in of the space between the primary pitches with other ones in various ways. When the end is reached, the tonic (I) may no longer sound like the tonic.