Composer’s Note:

Changes is an impressionistic single movement for chamber orchestra. The title of the piece refers to the haunting, oscillating figure in the harp that opens the piece and then recurs with the notes in a different order as in change ringing on a carillon. The notes of the “change” are derived from entry points in the slow movement of Ruth Crawford’s string quartet. Also, in honor of the bicentennial of the death of Mozart, several motifs from Mozart’s music (from the Overture to Don Giovanni and the “Dissonant” Quartet) are hidden and dispersed among various instruments of the orchestra. Although there is a lively and rather jazzy section with a thumping double bass pizzicato and brassy interpolations, the piece is largely elegaic.