Animal Rights

Animal Rights was first composed at Interlochen, Michigan in 2003 as a brass quintet. In 2005 I added a percussion part for the Meridian Arts Ensemble. As the movement titles suggest, there is a hint of program throughout. Cock Crow is a wake-up call rooted in the motoric momentum of trains and fourths. Chicken Strut is a jazzy, angular response to the opening call. The scale is octaton ic (half-step/whole-step) and the metric design shuffles expectations without mercy. The dancers in this movement have poor short-term memories, but actually seem to end up arriving where they i ntended.If turtles could talk as the third movement's title, Turtle Rap, suggests, I would imagine a tragic elegance reminiscent of the chordal slippage in Wagner's Liebestod waxing into the in ribute in the low brass to the old 100th. Everything rounds off to a close with an accelerated return of the cock crowing. Recorded by Meridian Arts Ensemble, 8Bells 009