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Programme Note

Composer Note:

Child is my attempt to examine certain experiences as I remember (and misremember) them from my childhood. Each of the individual moments is in some way a memory of how I learned how to do something. Because I was taught (as most children are) that one learns how to perceive the world by making up rules, it has been possible to apply these rules to musical environments.

I am not nostalgic for childhood, mine or anyone else's. It is not a point of Child to show either how childhood is a time of great excitement of great disturbance, or that I miss it or that I suffered through it. What is most interesting to me, especially now that I have children of my own, is that childhood is the time when one learns how to think, how to feel, how to move forward. Because each piece of music in some way needs to teach its listener its own rules for how it works, it is a comparison I have found meaningful.

— David Lang

Each movement of Child is sold separately:

1. My Very Empty Mouth   (13')
   fl, bcl, vn, va, vc, pf
2. Stick Figure   (10')
   cl, pf, perc, vc, and 1 or 2 non-percussionists
3. Short Fall   (4')
   pic, pf, vn, vc
4. Sweet Air   (8')
   fl, cl, vn, vc, pf
5. Little Eye   (7')
   cello and 4 non-percussionists