River's Bend for flute duo

River's Bend's for flute diuo (2011) by Robert Carl
Score Form (does not include separate parts)
Flute solo 

River's Bend emerged from two New England summer visits. The first was to the home of gardener Ann Uppinton in Byfield, Massachusetts, where Karen McCoy and I stayed while she was installing a new sculpture in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Ann's house is on the Parker River, and from her porch it outlines a beautiful “U” curve. A few weeks later Karen and I were on Maine's Blue Hill peninsula, staying in a rental home on the lower Nagaduce River estuary. Again, the panoramic view outlined almost exactly the same water contour, though this time it was broad like a bay, and the shape was filled in. I started to think about how this shape might be realized musically. The flutes follow the general curve of the “U,” but since it doubles back slightly on itself on either side, I suggested that by using the second flute to shadow the first. The music is a series of passes over the curve, each time growing longer and more detailed, as though one approaches and eventually enters the water. With each pass, the harmony grows more rich, incorporating pitches derived from up to the 27th partial of the overtone series off the low C of the flute. In its last minute, the process reverses, and returns to the original quartatonic mode of the opening. I hope the music suggests a fluidity that is truly “of water.” – Robert Carl