People seem to like a lot of things happening in a piece of music: fireworks, excitement, fancy technology. These things can be great, but sometimes, as a composer, it’s tiring to know that everyone wants so many things all of the time. In ”slow movement” I just wanted to write a piece in which nothing happens. Well, something happens: a kind of dim spotlight is focused on the fundamental musical experience, marking out the inexorable passage of time. I wrote ”slow movement” for Icebreaker in 1993, and it was the first time I made a piece using this approach. Since then I have made several others, most notably ”the passing measures” for bass clarinet, women’s voices, and amplified orchestra.
