Bioplasm

Bioplasm by Alex Shapiro
For Flute Quartet requiring the following instruments: Piccolo, 2 C Flutes, 2 Alto Flute, 2 Bass Flutes
Includes score and parts
Duration: 12:00

“I named this piece Bioplasm because “Oozing Up From the Primordial Sludge” seemed a bit long for a title. Bioplasm is the stuff of life, the germinal matter that's essential for living beings to generate. This is a squishy piece: rather than exploit the individual voice of each flute, I wanted to create an organism that oozes across the sonic floor as one tethered entity, sometimes slowly, sometimes at a quick pace, but always as one, like a Slinky toy. The blend of homogenous sound with four flutes is a throbbing pulse of life; add to this four human voices, and it's a choir of plasma, looking for life to begin. One of my heroes of both life science and the human condition was Lewis Thomas, author of many marvelous essays about our fragile planet. I happened to be reading one of his books, “Late Night Thoughts On Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony” as I began composing this piece at the MacDowell Colony in the fall of 2003, and reading his timeless observations moved me greatly. I dedicate this piece to his memory.” – Alex Shapiro