Acadia

flute and shakuhachi (2 players) (1999)

Performed by Elizabeth Brown, flute and shakuhachi (not at the same time)

from Blue Minor: Chamber Music by Elizabeth Brown Troy 627

duration: 8:30

Acadia was performed at Microtonal Pittsburgh on 1/13/18 by Kamraton, Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi and Sarah Steranka, flute.

Acadia was performed at the Australian Shakuhachi Festival 2018 in Melbourne by Bronwyn Kirkpatrick, shakuhachi and Rosamund Plummer, flute.


program note

Acadia, for flute and shakuhachi, was composed during a residency at Acadia National Park on Maine’s Mount Desert Island in September, 1999. It is modeled after Shika no Tone (“the Distant Call of the Deer”), a famous shakuhachi duo from the traditional repertoire, in which the two musicians call to each other from across a distance initially, moving together for the piece’s conclusion. Like Shika no Tone, Acadia can be performed outdoors in any setting. The flute’s extended microtonal inflections and progressions draw on traditional shakuhachi technique and the microtonal inflections of birdsong. Acadia was premiered May 20, 2000, by Nancy Laupheimer, flute and Elzabeth Brown, shakuhachi, as part of the Taos Chamber Music Group at the Harwood Museum in Taos, NM.