Inflection Points - FL/BSN/PN

I. quirky rays and charming segments

II. distant planets and objects

III. jiggly dots and origins

In differential calculus, an inflection point is a point on a curve at which the curvature changes sign. The curve changes between positive curvature and negative curvature. I contstrue the entirety of the piece as a somewhat long arc; the inflection point of the entire pieces happens somewhere during the second movement.

The first movement takes the idea of a stationary point- in this case, hovering around Bb and E- as a tonal center and more literally sees a line, or a curve, or pitches and motives passed around between the ensemble. The first movement ("quirky rays...") juggles a number of ideas and verily proffers some short-lived, rhythmically unstable and tonally ambiguous lines and arcs that return later on. 

The second movement ("distant planets...") contains a fair amount of parallel motion, open and sparse figures, and static textures. Motion in pitch space extends outward in both directions from A-flat and eventually returns, retracing the points. 

The final movement ("jiggly dots...") is a mildly psychotic gigue that melds together the ideas of the previous two movements. 

-Thomas Dempster