a.j. mccaffrey, composer
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Murmurations [2017]
For clarinet and piano
Duration: ca. 6'

Commissioned by Julia Heinen
First performance: August 29, 2018 in Györ, Hungary at the 2018 European Clarinet Festival with pianist Luca Ferrini

A "murmuration" is the phenomenon that results when an enormous flock of birds (usually starlings) form a massive, constantly shifting cloud that seems like one solid but ever-changing shape in the sky.  The gestures in this piece attempt to evoke this almost-unbelievable avian group aerodynamic, fluttering up and down and then settling into longer sustained and pulsing tones that shift microtonally above slowly chiming chords in the piano.
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  • Home
  • About A.J.
  • News & Events
  • Music
    • Orchestral >
      • Motormouth
      • Thank You for Waiting
      • Notes from the Underdog
      • A Long Hard Look at a Good Swift Kick
      • Between homage and homily
    • Chamber & Solo >
      • Pareidolia
      • Air, Ear, Ire, Hour, Aura
      • Ventilator
      • Murmurations
      • Doppelgänger
      • Here Come the Waterworks
      • This Is What Really Happened
      • Rusticity
      • Stop is the new Go
      • Better Living through Repetition
      • I used to be____________, but now I'm _______________
      • worst of all is to begin
    • Choral & Vocal >
      • The Butcher Boy
    • Pop Music >
      • Planes Intersect
      • Please Leave a Light on When You Go
    • Theater & Film
  • Teaching & Outreach