The first movement of Double Negative emphasizes rapidly flickering change; forty-four sections rush past, each defined by a different instrumental combination. The second movement takes the kaleidoscopic patterns of instrumentation from the first movement and reorders them to emphasize continuity rather than contrast. The forty-four sections become nine, including a lengthy passage for clarinet and trombone, a turbulent string trio, and a piano cadenza. The chorale-like third movement completes this trajectory, erasing sectional divisions entirely in favor of continuity.

The "double negative" of the title describes the ways in which the second and third movements are constructed as negations of the first. Where the opening movement tends towards quiet, the second movement is often loud and assertive. And where the first movement moves from a relatively dense beginning to a relatively spare ending, the second movement emphasizes symmetry in its construction. The repeated notes that open the second movement become the repeating melodic cycles of its ending, and the interplay of the clarinet/trombone duo near the beginning is a model for a more complex rotation and intercutting of materials in the penultimate section.

The third movement's negations are more literal. A composite of the first two movements was "inverted" - as in the exchange of light and dark in a photographic negative. Particular instruments and pitches appear in the third movement only in places where they are absent in the previous two. Similarly, the rhythms of the last movement reflect the placement of rests and silences in the composite of the first two. The spare and skeletal soundworld that results emphasizes small fluctuations in pitch and timbre, bringing a different kind of concentration and intensity to the music.

Double Negative is gratefully dedicated to Christopher Jones and sfSoundGroup.

Performances:
2008.08.10: sfSoundSeries, ODC Commons, San Francisco, California
2007.11.04: sfSoundSeries, ODC Theater, San Francisco, California
2007.08.26: sfSoundSeries, ODC Theater, San Francisco, California (first movement only)
sfSoundGroup; Christopher Jones, conductor

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