Chutes and Ladders

Program Note

Chutes and Ladders uses Markov chains, board game rules, and abandoned lines of inquiry to explore the continuum of step-size as a measure – or illusion – of progress, both musically (from glissandi to microtones to intervallic variety) and conceptually (featuring excerpts from 20-odd years of journal entries).

Movement I and the end of VIII focus on the continuums of the clarinet and voice as they chase each other along a microtonal palette. Movements II, IV, VI, and VIII present different variants of a probability-scrambled list of rules to the game “Chutes and Ladders” (thanks to Laura Balzano for computational assistance). Movements III and VII set non-consecutive sentences from a long-held journal. Movement V, which may be played standalone, is a musical setting of notes taken during a translation session on Virgil’s Georgics, which tell their own story of trying to tell a story.