They Will Take My Island

They Will Take My Island is a single movement piece for 10 players. The instrumentation is comprised of two quintets: one made up of wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) and the other consisting of string instruments (2 violins, viola, cello, and double bass). In the late autumn of 2008, Max Lifchitz, conductor, composer, and pianist, asked me to compose a piece in honor of the 30th anniversary of the group and concert series he founded, the North/South Consonance. I regard Max Lifchitz as one of the most important and accomplished musicians of our day, and I was delighted to accept. The title is from a painting by Arshile Gorky (Vosdanig Manoog Adoian). As Paul Griffiths, Music Critic of the New York Times, observed, "Martin's interest was apparently not so much in the subject matter of that particular picture as in the general notion of what gives an abstract image wholeness and presence."