Hell's Handbasket
Don Freund
About this work:
If you haven’t heard the old expression “We’re all going to hell in a handbasket,” well, now you have. Sometimes I find it difficult to disagree with the curmudgeon who can feel us all sliding down the slippery slope into a future where music with sensitivity, creativity, intelligence and taste remains only as a relic of a forgotten, irrelevant antiquity. But in this piece, anyway, I’m taking sides with the happy handbasketeer who says “Chill out, dude, and enjoy the ride.” I’m not sure whether the handbasket is the funk band riff that opens the piece and grows to an apocalyptic catharsis, or the silly little hook of a tune that is rediscovered in the aftermath.
Hell's Handbasket was commposer for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music New Music Ensemble, and was premiered January 31, 2013, the composer conducting.
Year composed: 2012
Duration: 00:10:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 10+ players
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Alto Saxophone, 1 Horn in F, 1 Trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Tuba, 1 Drum Set, 1 Piano, 2 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, 1 Double bass
Perusal score: donfreund.com