<<  -- 2 --  Carson P Cooman    AMERICAN ACCENTS

The opening movement, 'Inexorable; Light, dancing' consists of outer sections of slow, crawling intensity surrounding the 'light, dancing' music in the middle. With deep seated percussion thumps that drive the energy underneath, the outer sections give the impression of a large crawling earthworm. The middle section is effervescent -- its pastoral lightness provides a perfect contrast to the rest of the movement [listen -- track 1, 6:27-7:31].

The second movement is the aforementioned scherzo. It is brief, colorful, and exciting [listen -- track 2, 0:00-0:30].

The third movement, 'Ominous', returns us to the world of the first movement. It is again slow moving with a constant building of tension. Bright chords and rhythmic brash flourishes punctuate the dark texture to bring the movement to an exciting and bright conclusion.

The symphony overall has a certain 'night' quality to it -- as if the darkness of the outer movements is interrupted by a slightly nightmarish scherzo before returning to the darkness again. The bright coda to the work could be the coming of morning.

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