Concerto for Orchestra is the latest in an ongoing series of compositions begun in the mid 70?s in which an exploration, at least on one level, of the relationship between a given work's formal/dramatic essence and its chosen instrumentation is a significant compositional concern.
To be sure, I never set out consciously to write a ?series of works? exploring this or any other premise, but over the last decade or so it gradually became clear to me that my love for and fascination with sound, specifically (though not exclusively) live instrumental sound, had relatively little to do with what at a certain point in this century became a central issue for many composers?an interest in sound per se, sound for sound's sake. Rather, for me, a participating instrument -- or, in the case of the large canvas of a symphony orchestra, a group of instruments -- becomes something akin to a character in a play, with which a very specific repertory of musical materials and gestures as well as a distinct emotional existence, may be associated.
A musical composition, then, is a dramatic form in which the different characters, or types, are set in motion and developed, interacting with and against each other, together forming a new reality.
