Beschreibung
Written in January 1991
The horn part includes simple multi-phonics which puts in as at least a grade six level composition.
This work is in two movements
1) Largo
and
2) Swiftly
The technique of the composition I use in a Mandala is one that give a work an imaginary symmetrical pattern. It is similar to what Pauline Oliveros did in her horn etudes (1959) where the composer limits oneself to only a few
melodic intervals. I think I used half or whole steps and major or minor thirds in this mandala. Along with the interval limitations, I also bind myself with I Ching scale limitations, using I Ching No. 36 "Censorship".
I also have an in-passing rule, where if you go one direction with an allowed interval you may go in the opposite direction skipping the previous tone, but jumping to an allowed interval based one the previous tone. This rule is good at creating hyperbola shapes in the music.
This work was written five months after I joined Sacramento Symphony and in the first month of my first marriage to a violinist that only lasted a couple of years.