Composer’s Note:

Firebreak was written for piano virtuoso Mary Hellmann. Written in a jazz style, the composition is derived from the pitches presented in the first chord of the work (Bbmi7b9#11). A “firebreak” is an obstacle to the spread of fire, such as a strip of open space in a forest. The composer spends much of his freetime at his cabin in a forest in the South Mountains of North Carolina where firebreaks are necessary to control both natural fires and control burns. The are a number of musical “firebreaks” throughout this work allowing for brief respites from the enslaught of the incessant and omnipresent hexicord as well as the swung eighth notes.