My piece, Forestallings, takes just the opening gesture from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 as a point of departure. From that rather stark D – an anacrusis, my slow introduction unfolds in its own direction, quickly parting ways from Beethoven’s. I explore a constellation of harmonies which then lead to a faster music, which derives from the same material as what I used in my slow introduction, but now reimagined in a more urgent character. The slow music and the fast music form a sort of dialectic and a dialogue, and a sense of conflict is produced by the harmonic constellation whose hierarchies shift throughout the length of the piece. It ends uncertain of which tonal center leans upon which, asking a question rather than offering a resolution. Han Lash
