Ancient Eyes (1990) by Mathew Rosenblum
for flute, clarinet, cello, percussion, and keyboards

Commissioned by the Stony Brook Contemporary Players, Ancient Eyes was written during the months directly before and after the birth of my daughter, Anna Eileen, on November 12, 1990, and reflects some of the thoughts and emotions I was experiencing at that time. As is the case with other recent music of mine, Ancient Eyes expands the twelve note equal tempered system to include both just and equal tempered intervals. The nineteen note hybrid tuning used in this piece allows the music to move freely through passages which use either altered or tempered tunings, or combinations of the two.