ORBIT E also available for Violin, Clarinet, Cello, and Piano

The intense quartet centers around the note E. So many pieces of classical music use this subtle code. One great example is Beethoven's 7th Symphony, particularly the slow movement. Even contemporary composers, like William Kraft, use the pitch 'E' as an organizing force.

This piece is an abstract, expressive essay for flute, clarinet, cello, and piano that is essentially a meditation on an E minor triad. Notes surrounding the E minor triad continually challenge its stability. The chord rises and falls, expands and collapses, carving an intimate chamber world of color.Tentatively and then with more assurance, the instruments break from the chord, playing melodic fragments that explode the texture with a wide range of dynamics and register. Clarinet, violin, and cello have cadenza moments both separately and as a trio. After spending considerable energy, the first movement concludes quietly back to its E minor triad in sustained notes of clarinet and strings, but with the piano hovering with its sunken version, E flat minor.

The second movement is a fantasy nocturne that continues surrounding E minor, only now with added color of glissandi and the aura and reverberation from inside the piano.

The third movement is marked Furioso and is a buzzing of bees that again swirls around E minor, then transforms into a scherzo dance.

Orbit E was commissioned by Michelle Stanley and the Sonora Chamber Ensemble.