for solo French Horn
I shall go farther: my freedom will be so much greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint, diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself of the chains that shackle the spirit.
~Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
In this piece I placed many constraints on myself. The piece begins with one melodic fragment and continues through all twelve transpositions. Then at each point when the horn is stopped, the corresponding transpositions of the melodic material are subtracted from the first part of the piece, effectively shortening the material to be used in the next section. Eventually there is no material left, and the piece ends.
