Snapdragon is written and dedicated to the Yesaroun’
Duo. The piece was written with the Yesaroun’ Duo’s fearsome
exuberance and technical virtuosity in mind.
Although Snapdragon is a purely instrumental work,
there is a sense that I was in some way speaking a feeling of being
personally disenfranchised through the music. Snapdragon was written
at a time of media frenzy over the initial attack on Iraq. Snow was
falling in Princeton, physically trapping me in a tall apartment, while
my connection with the outside world – the TV – projected
sensational stories and graphic images of faraway places in turmoil.
There was a gradual sense of becoming numb, as weather and war preyed
on a creeping awareness of my incapacity to act in any tangible way.
So, the music that emerged has a poignant physicality, a visceral energy,
a sense that its raucous and reeling and relentless character speaks
the personal frustration and powerlessness I felt at the time
Snapdragon should be played loud!
Snapdragon is written and dedicated to the Yesaroun'
Duo.