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Programme Note

Composer Note:

Citadel is in one continuous movement. It begins as if a curtain is rising or dawn is breaking, or as we read “once upon a time.” The motive that is to act as a catalyst for all that follows, that will define the character of the work, is introduced by the French Horn. From the opening, which establishes that the piece is almost in C and that the theme has a stark and structural silhouette, a series of gestures, phrases, shapes and moods will take the work to unimagined planes. You might call Citadel a series of variations for each section based on the original material which moves the piece forward, yet there is repetition with variation so that episodes heard earlier now appear not quite the same but recognizably similar. There are two polarities to the work, at times juxtaposed, at times interwoven, but at all times part of a scenario that, built on a succession of events, plays like a music drama. It is the companion work to Sanctuary written for the Louisville Orchestra in 1987 on the occasion of their 50th Anniversary. Without spelling it all out it is in every way the other side of Sanctuary.

— Ezra Laderman