Interrupted Dance

“Interrupted Dance” was written for the Guitarist Larry Marotta who I have worked with for many years. I felt comfortable giving Larry the difficult tasks of going back and forth between a simple childhood tune with variations Mozart would have approved of. I contrasted that with daunting extended techniques from the old Avant -Garde. I did not want to get rid of any technique which would still be useful to me from my old love of Modernism, but I wanted to use that as part of my current practice of letting the past in, which has moved away from 1966. The dance was inspired by a little sculpture a friend of mine gave to me, which depicts a booby -trapped playground. It shows a little swing set surrounded by thorns and daggers. There is a little teddy, who wants to ride the swing but never does, because he sees the bucket of blood. The little swing set is represented by the childhood tune in its various transformations. The work is simply dedicated to that friend. The work contains two endings. The guitarist traveling teddy navigates the playground in triumph in the first ending and individuates and rejects the playground in the second ending. Returning to the practice of life in maturity. - RDP