Cicadoidea

ensemble 3[1=picc].4.3[3=bass cl].2, 4.3.3.1, timp, perc+3, strings

written spring 2017
duration 4 minutes

read April 11 2017, Hertz Hall, Berkeley, CA by David Milnes and the UCBerkeley Symphony Orchestra

Cicadoidea is a brief orchestral composition depicting the life cycle of its namesake - cicadas. The piece opens hesitantly, beginning with low grumblings and gushes of air from the winds. The main theme is established by cello pizzicato, an off-kilter, lilting melody that first sounds whole-tone, then Lydian. As the piece continues, activity grows, from prickly, Bartok pizzicato to col legno ostinati built on the main theme. Woodwind chattering suggests the competing sounds of mating calls, culminating in similar pairings matching together as swells of pan-diatonic brass harmony begin to resound. Fluttering and buzzing of wings begins to accompany the main theme's fragments as it grows in ength, before the melody finally erupts into a glorious brass augmentation. Strings and winds flutter about chaotically, evoking images of a swarm of cicadas, before the strings carry an inversion of the theme in orgiastic ecstasy. The music swells to its climax, ending on a massive G Lydian chord composed of the three main notes of the theme - before suddenly dissipating back into nothingness, leaving the cycle to begin again.