Frost - SOLO BSN

Frost
for solo bassoon
by Marc Mellits (b. 1966) - American composer

In the northeast of the United States, the winter of 2010-11 saw incredible record-breaking snowfall. However, early March provided a brief stay from the cold and the warm weather started to thaw the frozen landscape. As the ice and snow began to melt, audible cracks in the frozen blocks could be heard. Icicles and snow drifts would exclaim a snapping sound as they cracked and then hit the ground, echoing through the neighborhood. I imagined these echoes turning into groovy loops of sound, rebounding off the houses and trees. Slowly melting sheets of ice yielded more introverted lyrical lines of sound. From its initial frozen formation, each movement warmed and metamorphosized itself into a sound portrait of the Rönmark family.