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Programme Note

Vivo - Lento - Vivo - Lento - Vivo - Lento

(for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and percussion)

The title derives from my fascination with both desert country and its fringes, and this particular piece stems from the kind of sudden movements of lizards, which seem to go from total immobility to an extremely fast rate of movement without an intervening state of acceleration.

The various sections that go to make up this piece are not necessarily a pictorial portrait of this point, but it was the basic impulse underlying the formation of the melodic material.

© John McCabe