
dance beneath the moon was the first prize entry in a competition sponsored by Iowa State University for a new duet work. It frequently shifts among different musical ideas – perhaps the dancers have short attention spans and get sidetracked from dancing at times? It begins with a bold, "fanfare" motif, presented in a rather dissonant idiom. Partway down the second page, the fanfare motif returns, but now in a major key, and at a more relaxed tempo. Fairly early in the piece (measure 8), the two players have a lively exchange of musical figures, where the two players "trade roles" rapidly. That idea is applied to the remainder of the piece, including the reappearances of the fanfare. Some more halting sections follow, including some passages that are to be played freely (rubato). Interestingly, the two performers have to coordinate how they're going to do that, since the notes of those figures are passed back and forth between them. Finally, the fanfare figure returns in its original sonority and tempo, but with the back-and-forth between the two players more interactive than it was at the beginning.
—The GCNA