Nicholas Mroczek

This piece for solo flute was written for Sheila Tabor in the spring of 2006. With this piece I wanted to evoke the feeling of being in the desert at night sitting by a fire—the cold, dry night air on your back with the heat and glow of the flames on your face. It’s almost a soundtrack for a story teller. There you are listening to a sad story when all of a sudden the fire sparks up and distracts everyone. Finally the story continues with its somber mood.

As the piece evolves, specifically at the return of the A section, I wanted to use the grace notes to imply different harmonic undertones. I chose not to use a time signature to allow the performer free reign with rubato on those grace notes. Here the piece is performed by Sheila Tabor at Weber Music Hall. During the performance we specifically allowed the maximum amount of reverb in the hall to let the sound carry through as the piece moved on.