Fast Through Dark Winds
for chamber orchestra
Released 2/12/2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records, Moravian Philharmonic, Petr Vronsky, Conductor
Score available through Subito Music Distribution
Program note: Inspired by the emotional intensity of a dream – careening through dense dark night fog on a bike with no brakes, no control and no visibility, accompanied by alternating interludes of fear and transcendent calm.
Some time after composing this, I realized that the dream was a subliminal metaphor for the profound helplessness I was feeling as a caregiver and the need for acceptance in witnessing my mother’s descent into vascular dementia. – RW
Reviews of Fast Through Dark Winds
Careening is indeed a great word to describe the introduction of this piece. Exhibiting minimalist tendencies, this work layers swelling minor third ostinati with chromatic scalar sweeps that are passed through various instruments and tessituras. Worthington swirls these two ideas through the orchestra, dovetailing one statement with the next in the diminuendo of each swell. Her very subtle use of low percussion grounds the introduction in a quiet foreboding, barely audible under the activity of the winds and strings. The swirling introduction comes to a standstill in the form of sustained pitches that usher in a series of falling suspensions.
– Dr. Anne Neikirk, IAWM Journal Volume 22, No. 2
