Premiere: Cleveland Orchestra Members Reading Session, Miami FL, Feb. 20th, 2014

 

Duration:  ca. 5'30"

 

Program Note:

 

As a food lover, I have always been intrigued by the temporal aspect of taste—from the initial "zing" to the dying remnants and traces of other, often unrelated flavors. This work, entitled Citron et Ail  (French for “Lemon and Garlic”), explores a combination of two distinct, unique flavors in a culinary experience in which the two are combined. Think of a sauce in which a chef cooks chicken, for example. The several ways in which I work with the “flavors” include examining the nature of each flavor in time and approaching a musical representation of the sensation of each in the mouth. Lemon is a tangy, sharp, sour flavor, but with a sweet aftertaste. Garlic is a fat, present zing with a slightly bitter aftertaste, but can also be warm and rich in its many forms, from minced, roasted, powdered, etc. The musical parameters of the work—gestures, orchestration, and form, are inspired by the two flavors and create multiple layers of interpretation. I use musical materials to convey the complex and often indescribable experience that comes with enjoying cuisine.