Tres piezas In Memoriam L.J.
Commissioned and recorded by La Banda Elastica funded by Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, México in 1997.
Premiered in 2003 as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic series by CalArts New Century players with David Rosenboom, conducting.
Tres Piezas In Memoriam L.J. was written in 1998 as a tribute to the British sculptor and dear friend Laurie Josephs, who passed away that year.
The pieces describe the journey of a ritual in which the first piece becomes a meditation around a melodic cell sung by the flute – an instrument very much cherished by Laurie – and on an F drone, held by the saxophones throughout this introduction. The second piece follows, built by a series of interventions from a unique palette of instruments offered by La Banda Elástica, a group who combines Western instruments with a wide range of Mexican percussion instruments as well as the Indian Tabla, the instrument featured on the third and last piece. This piece portrays a celebration of life and in this way homage to someone who loved life and music from every corner of the world, comes to a close.