Infinite Spinning (2018)
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano
Duration: 7 minutes
- Finalist, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest 2022
- Finalist, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Call for Scores 2020
- Selected for the Boston New Music Initiative Call for Scores 2019
- Honorable Mention, Flute New Music Consortium 2018
- Composed for American Modern Ensemble at the Mostly Modern Festival 2018
Duration: 7 minutes
- Finalist, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest 2022
- Finalist, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra Call for Scores 2020
- Selected for the Boston New Music Initiative Call for Scores 2019
- Honorable Mention, Flute New Music Consortium 2018
- Composed for American Modern Ensemble at the Mostly Modern Festival 2018
"Living in the post-John Adams universe and incorporating the zazzy colors of the current new music dialect, Neiner’s spiraling, perpetual motion piece offers pleasant shocks and melting cadences."
- Cleveland Classical -
- Cleveland Classical -
Program Note:
When asked to describe my music, I typically discuss a dichotomy that has gradually emerged in my composing. There are pieces which are introspective, nostalgic, or delicate, and then there are pieces which are the exact opposite: animated, kinetic, extroverted. Infinite Spinning is an example of the latter category. At the beginning of the piece’s writing process, I was determined to create something euphoric, a joyful burst of sound. As I jotted down a number of sketches and arranged them in various collages on the living room wall, it wasn’t until the twentieth sketch that I found something I felt exciting enough to pursue. The piece developed around this new material, retaining elements of the jubilant character initially decided upon, but began to focus more on its quality of continuous, self‐propelling motion.
The working title, Absolute Joy, was scrapped for Infinite Spinning when the work ultimately grew into a perpetuum mobile. Taking its name from the Latin phrase for “perpetual motion,” a perpetuum mobile is a type of piece, or section of a larger musical work, that consists of consecutive short notes, equal in length, performed at a fast speed. The classic example of this is Nikolai Rimsky‐Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, but other well‐known examples are the finales of Samuel Barber’s violin concerto and Frédéric Chopin’s second piano sonata. With the exception of a few moments in Infinite Spinning, the piece adheres to the perpetuum mobile nature, sprinting along through a patchwork of contrasting instrumental colors.
When asked to describe my music, I typically discuss a dichotomy that has gradually emerged in my composing. There are pieces which are introspective, nostalgic, or delicate, and then there are pieces which are the exact opposite: animated, kinetic, extroverted. Infinite Spinning is an example of the latter category. At the beginning of the piece’s writing process, I was determined to create something euphoric, a joyful burst of sound. As I jotted down a number of sketches and arranged them in various collages on the living room wall, it wasn’t until the twentieth sketch that I found something I felt exciting enough to pursue. The piece developed around this new material, retaining elements of the jubilant character initially decided upon, but began to focus more on its quality of continuous, self‐propelling motion.
The working title, Absolute Joy, was scrapped for Infinite Spinning when the work ultimately grew into a perpetuum mobile. Taking its name from the Latin phrase for “perpetual motion,” a perpetuum mobile is a type of piece, or section of a larger musical work, that consists of consecutive short notes, equal in length, performed at a fast speed. The classic example of this is Nikolai Rimsky‐Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, but other well‐known examples are the finales of Samuel Barber’s violin concerto and Frédéric Chopin’s second piano sonata. With the exception of a few moments in Infinite Spinning, the piece adheres to the perpetuum mobile nature, sprinting along through a patchwork of contrasting instrumental colors.