Emergence of Night

Description

The Emergence of Night
Composed by Robert J. Frank (1992)
For flute and piano
Published by Brixton Publications

Program Notes:
This work follows the form of the poem The Emergence of Night, also by the composer. Throughout the work, the flute sound “emerges” from sustained piano sonorities. Like the poem, the music presents an allegory of approaching and passing over the brink of death in the symbolism of daytime fading into night. It begins queitly, twilight is approaching. This builds to a climactic moment when it is neither day nor night. As the music passes this moment of the work, the celeste enters and reflects the sentiment of the final stanza of the poem: “Hope; Reassurance; Peace. Behold a million points of light: the emergence of Night.“