Vynes (2010)
for
flute and piano

by
Robert Morris

Program Notes

Vynes is written for a consortium of gifted flutists who have distinguished themselves as dedicated performers of new music: Daria Binkowski, Sarah Brady, Deidre Huckabay, Tara O’Connor, and Amber Waseen.

The piece is in a rough arch form; sprightly, graceful music starts and ends the piece with more somber or meditative phrases in the center of the piece. Like many of my compositions, I chose a title that has references to natural processes, in this case the  way vines ornament a building or tree, intertwining this way and that--just as the piano and flute interact, surging into and over each other as the music flows on. The y in Vynes is a pun on the technical term lyne, which is a series of notes without registral affiliation that undergird a composition. The composition is made out of several unfolding lynes in both instruments from which arise moments of harmonic and gestural affinity.