In Shadow Light

in Shadow, light
Composed by Ken Benshoof
For piccolo, violin, viola, and cello
Published by Alry Publications
Includes score and parts

Program Notes:
      in Shadow, light, commissioned by Zart Dombourian-Eby, was composed in 1997, and premiered in Chicago at the National Flute Association convention the same year. Like many of Benshoof's other compositions, this piece uses classical textures and structural concepts, but includes idioms from folk, jazz, and popular music. Designed to integrate the distinct sounds of string instruments with that of the piccolo, in Shadow, light is a true chamber piece for piccolo and string trio, with responsibilities distributed equally between the instruments through contrapuntal textures and conversational interplay. A wide range of colors and expressive articulation from the piccolo completes the integration. 
      This work is cast in six movements which are joined to form three pairs. The last movement, which was composed first, serves as a source material for the other five movements. The entire work exhibits structural relations to variation, suite, and rondo forms. The first movement is a gentle dialogue which sets up the dance-like second movement. The third and sixth movements owe much to baroque style. The fourth movement, like the second, is more of a dance. The fifth movement is rhapsodic and contains a “cadenza” for the piccolo. If all goes well, the various questions and tensions provoked in the first five movements find resolution in the sixth.