The Elegant Journey (1965) by Robert Moran

Players: any

Instrumentation: any

Duration: any

Program Note:

Robert Moran has followed many musical paths since 1957 when he began his study of 12-tone music in Vienna with Hans Erich Apostel. He has composed for solo instruments and intimate chamber groups; he has created musical compositions incorporating entire cities; he has collaborated with Philip Glass to compose minimalist opera scores. Throughout his career, Moran has been careful not to ally himself with any specific school of composition. This freed him to pursue whatever musical form interested him at the moment. The Elegant Journey is one of Moran’s oldest forays into graphic notation. The score is purely artistic and contains no musical elements. Performers follow the contour of the shapes, drawing musical inspiration from the artwork itself. – Christine Augspurger