\    Commissioning note

 

Lovebomb was commissioned by and written for Sonora Collective. I have so much gratitude for Julia Danitz and Katie Althen-Velázquez for their patience and support during the writing of this piece.

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\    Programme note

 

It’s a rush; a dazzling, breathless, devouring. Its intensity blinds as it binds. The pace is calculated, the abundance strategic, and then comes the turn. What was radiant becomes thick and oozing; what was generous becomes withholding. The once-relentless warmth cools, replaced by control, by stoniness, and by the slow unspooling of worth. The cycle completes itself with mechanical grace: adoration, collapse, command.

 

\    Composer note

 

It took me much longer than I expected or intended to write Lovebomb. First of all, I really wanted to write something good for Sonora. It’s also one of the first pieces I’ve written since I finished my doctorate, and it’s the first flute quintet I’ve ever written. In the process of writing it, I created yards and yards of extra material which I sewed together, unstitched, ripped, and discarded. The shape and form of the piece morphed, and it kept telling me what it should be, and that it wasn’t that yet. I kept stitching, and unstitching, and cutting and ripping, until it began to coalesce into an intense, exhilarating, unsettling piece that I’m (finally) quite proud of.

 

\    Dedication

 

I finished the piece a few days after my beloved dog Mila died in my arms, just before dawn, after a long and very bad night. Mila was a total lovebug; my little shadow, full of adoration, and always close. I haven’t written music without her for eight years. This is the last piece of mine she heard me make. Lovebomb is dedicated to her.