Blocks (score & parts) - 4BSN [PDF]

BLOCKS is a single-movement work for bassoon quartet, written for and dedicated to the bassoon section of the Houston Symphony. It is inspired by the famous Rothko Chapel in Houston.  The chapel, built in 1971, is a peaceful, contemplative space which features 14 large murals by artist Mark Rothko which, at first glance, are abstract paintings of a single dark-purple color.  However, given time to absorb the space and the murals, one is brought into a meditative state in which the seemingly simple art animates and deepens into a host of colors, shapes, tones and sensations.

BLOCKS takes advantage of the single tone-color of four equal-partner bassoons.  Much like the apparently monochromatic murals, the bassoons prove themselves to have subtle inflections and depth of color.   At first, slow-moving chords quietly undulate through subtly shifting harmonies in music with very little active motion or melody.  But gradually, the music deepens, adding increased rhythmic motion, at first in the lowest of the four parts. Like Rothko’s murals, the listener is taken through varied sections of rhythmic energy and independence, coming back periodically to the more solid, peaceful tones of the opening. The last two sections of BLOCKS are a passacaglia in 5/8, evoking a sense of Baroque inevitability, and then a plaintive, processional variation on the opening block-chords in 3/4.  BLOCKS ends with a final cadence to a two-octave open chord, yielding space for continued meditation and introspection.