FLUTE 3.2.4 (1995) by Adriana Verdié de Vas Romero
for flute
West Coast premiere

When I was asked to write a piece for solo flute, my mind was filled with the warm sound of the Musica Andina (music of the Andes) and the vivid image of the sicus (pan pipes) players of the Altiplano. The sicus is an instrument whose origin is indigenous to many Andean people, consisting of a single line of pipes, each of a different length, which restricts the performer to a small range of fixed pitches. As the sicus does not have all the notes, it is played by pairs of musicians playing alternate notes in tight association with one another to obtain a single melody. I have taken this idea and reversed it, by writing a composition which requires one flutist to play two-voice polyphony on the instrument. The piece is cast in three movements that are played without interruption. Each movement is restricted to a specific melodic interval as the generator of the pitch system, and as a base of mathematical calculations to determine formal proportions, metrical relationships and rhythmic organization. The first movement is a rhythmic elaboration of 3rds (and its complement, 6ths), characterized for its two-voice setting of ostinatti and melodies in a multisectioned arch form. A slower dance-like rhythm employing three differnet scales combining 2nds (and 7ths) forges the second movement; its gracious timbral shades lead into the third and last movement, which revolves around a system of 4ths (and 5ths), completing the intervalic spectra, again in a fast motion with some reminiscences of the rhythmic profiles of previous movements. Flute 3.2.4 received Honorable Mention at the 1997 "Newly Published Composition Competition" of the National Flute Association.