Left Behind for Solo Flute (left hand only) by Sarah Bassingthwaighte
Duration: 5:00
Extended techniques used: Whistle Tones; Wind Sounds; Bent Notes; Harmonics; Altered Fingerings
From the composer: “I was approached with the idea of composing a piece for solo flute using only the left hand. This could be played by someone with a right-hand or wrist injury, or for anyone interested in trying a new flute adventure. My first thought is that the options would be very limited, and then I thought of something Stravinsky said that has rolled around in my head for years: “The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.” He spoke often about the necessity of imposing restrictions to creating great music.”
The title, Left Behind, has a double meaning. The first is a reference to using only the left hand. The second is inspired by a sad story she heard that can be summarized like this: there is a bird in New Guinea, and he is all alone. He desperately wants to find any others of his species, and roams far and wide every day in search of a mate or a friend. Some days he wanders, sad and lonely, and on other days, he searches in a frenzy. Little to his knowledge, there is one other bird of his species, also looking for a friend. In separate locations, they each search, crying and wailing, to no avail. This goes on for months, and then years. Then one day, the other bird finally lay down, tired and old, and passed away quietly. The first bird kept searching and searching, and then finally, also lay down, and was the last of his kind to live and to die. This is, in a sense, the story of every species that has gone or is going extinct.
