Program Note

Composed for Zephyr (Howard Klug, Jorge Montilla, Min-Ho Yeh)

"Volando" is Spanish for "flying," and in this short fanfare the three clarinets are certainly asked to fly through many notes in rapid order, requiring great agility on the part of the performers. Lasting about three and one half minutes, Volando is in six sections:

A    Fanfare I - Departure. Perhaps the most typically 'fanfare'-like music in the work, the opening presents the basic musical material of the composition in mostly unison declarative exclamations.

B    Chirping. A wild cacophony of bird-like chirping.

C    Fluttering. Muted echoes of the chirps, now as tentative flutters, culminating in some rather labored flapping.

D    Soaring. Long ascending scales elided between the players, gaining energy and then juxtaposed with more flutters.

E    Flocking. The three parts (birds?) converge into rhythmically propulsive arpeggios in octaves.

F    Fanfare II - Arrival. The concluding fanfare summarizes all of the musical elements in the work.