piano - 5 min.
Program Notes:
Jökulhlaup is the Icelandic term for a sudden cataclysmic flood that sometimes follows a volcanic eruption under a glacier. English-speaking scientists have adopted the term for use describing any glacial outburst flood, such as the Missoula Lake flood, which destroyed all of what is now Eastern Washington State at the end of the last ice age. The lengthy introduction of this piece is a frozen landscape of jagged, dissonant gestures, interrupted by increasingly violent, ascending explosions of sound. Following the introduction is a short, unsettling walk through what might be a rural village, encrusted in ice and frozen in time. The melodic threads of this section are inspired by common practice tonality, though their sinister counterpoint recalls the icy atonal harmonic language of the introduction. Throughout the second half of the composition, the energy gradually builds by acceleration and dynamic intensification, evoking the melting of a glacier by volcanic eruption. In the final section, we hear frozen chunks of atonal material from the introduction, cascading over one another in an overwhelming inundation of sound.
Performance History:
World Premiere: July 7, 2007
Piano Reborn Recital - Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium - Beall Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene OR
Kate Campbell, piano
Minnesota Premiere: October 21, 2007
Redeemer Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, MN
Michael Ippolito, piano
Wisconsin Premiere: November 7, 2007
Guest Artist Recital - Morphy Recital Hall, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Michael Ippolito, piano
Florida Premiere: January 6, 2008
Temple Terrace Presbyterian Church, Tampa, FL
Michael Ippolito, piano
Colorado Premiere: April 25, 2008
2nd Annual Colorado Composers Concert - the Playground - King Center Concert Hall, Metropolitan State College of Denver, CO
Heide Brende, piano
California Premiere: November 15, 2008
New Keys Series, Lisser Hall, Mills College, Oakland, CA
Kate Campbell, piano
2nd Colorado performance: January 23, 2009
Colorado Music Educators Conference - Colorado Springs, CO
Heide Brende, piano
Recording
Score