...in inky night... (2015)

for chamber orchestra

[Score | Recording]

selected for performance at the 2015 Exchange of Midwest Collegiate Composers

Premiered by Center for New Music at the University of Iowa (IA)

University of Iowa Center for New Music.  David Gompper, conductor.

 

Program Notes:

"...in inky night..." is a quote from Jack Kerouac's On the Road. In the novel, Kerouac periodically uses this phrase, or a variant thereof, to describe the American sky at night:

"Every bump, rise, and stretch in it mystified my longing. In inky night we crossed New Mexico..."

"And now we shot in inky darkness through the scream of insects, and the great, rank, almost rotten smell descended..."

Growing up, I would often camp and backpack around the American South during the summer months.  No matter where I was, the sky was always saturated "in inky darkness" at night.