Neon Lights over Desert Skies - FL/ALTO FL/BSN

Neon Lights over Desert Skies
for flute, alto flute, and bassoon
by Martin J. Van Klompenberg - American bassoonist and composer

FROM THE COMPOSER:

I spent six years of my life driving through the Arizona desert, memorizing I-10 between southern Phoenix and Tucson. The Sonoran Desert, while driving, can be both incredibly boring and amazingly exciting. The sand, rocks and cacti create an amazing, almost unending tapestry.

On the outskirts of Phoenix, sits the Desert Horse Pass Casino. On dark, clear nights, the lights of this casino welcomed me home. They could be seen from miles ahead.

Neon Lights over Desert Skies is the juxtaposition of these two ideas. The eerie solace of the desert, immediately broken up the lights and sounds of the Desert Horse Pass. Starting with a barely audible four note motif in the bassoon, the opening is a chorale of subtle changes, never quite resolving, when it is interrupted by the increasing chaos on the casino floor, where slots machines, blackjack tables and frantic activity provide a stark contrast to the unbroken desert.