Symphony orchestra
2(picc).2.2(bcl).2(cbn) / 4.2.3.1 / timp+3perc / pno / strings
Chamber orchestra
1(picc).1.2(2=bcl).1 / 1.1.1.0 / 1perc / pno / strings (min. 1.1.1.1.1)
Minimum 15 players.
Listen
Symphony orchestra – Spokane Symphony
Chamber orchestra – Lake George Music Festival
Scores & Performance Materials
Symphony orchestra
View perusal score — symphony orchestra
Chamber orchestra
View perusal score — chamber orchestra
Program Note
"When you grow up by the sea you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on earth the waves might bring – and where the sea might deposit you – until one day you know you have lived between two places, the scene of arrival and the point of departure."
—Andrew O'Hagan, The Atlantic Ocean: Essays (2008)
The title is drawn from the Greek "ὁρίζων κύκλος" (horizōn kyklos) – "separating circle" – which symbolizes the sliver of visible horizon that always remains in the distance no matter how much one tries to reach it.
As a resident of NYC hailing from Montreal, I have traveled between the two cities countless times since childhood. At the midpoint of that voyage, Lake George has always stood out as a landmark signaling my departure from one place and imminent arrival at another. This manifests itself tangibly as radio broadcasts dissolve, replaced by new ones ahead, but with significant overlap and signal crossing along the way. Unfailingly, this transition from one "home" to another evokes tangled and conflicting emotions of aspiration, longing, regret, fear, and nostalgia.
Musically, Arc of Horizon emerges from this symbolic personal transition between my past in progressive metal and my present in concert music – I seem to perpetually chase whichever horizon seems newest, and having arrived I turn back to chase it again.
—HS
Commission & Performance History
Commissioned by the Lake George Music Festival during the 2015 composer residency, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Chamber orchestra
Premiered August 26, 2015 at the Lake George Music Festival, Roger Kalia conducting.
Symphony orchestra
Premiered November 6, 2015 by the Spokane Symphony, Eckart Preu conducting.