A mixed instrumental ensemble was assembled for Etch comprising 18 Columbus artists who perform with Columbus’ orchestras, chamber groups, Opera Project Columbus and Columbus Dance Theatre. Many hold faculty positions in colleges around Ohio. Etch was then composed for the instrumentation of this unique group of musicians. The overall form of the piece is designed to portray hope. The beginning of the first movement contains a theme first played by the alto saxes that appears in different altered forms in every other movement. The second movement portrays loneliness embodied by a viola solo. A descent into darker (flatter) key signatures comes to a climax in A-flat minor. The third movement portrays surprising hope steadily moving forward. The fourth and final movement portrays joy, including recollections of the first movement’s themes, ending with a joyous reharmonization of the second movement’s dark climax.
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