Yo Shakespeare

acdc (1996) 9'

Instrumentation: fl.cl/pf/vn.vc

click here to view score

Commissioner: Chamber Music America for Alternate Currents

First Performer: Alternate Currents, Music in the Mountains Spring Festival, Grass Valley, California, 4 April 1997

Program note:

acdc is based on a simple, almost pop, chord progression that somehow found its way into 11/8, the basic time signature that runs throughout the whole piece. I layered oddly phrased melodies on top, with the cello playing a pizzicato bass groove.

acdc was commissioned by the Alternate Currents ensemble, which made me think about electricity. I'm not a scientist or engineer, so I was free to imagine that alternating currents were something like two different speeds or rhythms going on simultaneously.

—Michael Gordon
acdc was commissioned by Chamber Music America for Alternate Currents.

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