These dark notes drifting takes its title from a poem by 9th-century Chinese poet Li Po.  Inspired by a Chinese folk tune, the piece evokes distant flutes, coloured by the sounds that one might hear across a valley at night in the spring.

Spring Night in Lo-Yang hearing a flute

In what house, the jade flute that sends these dark notes drifting,

scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-Yang?

Tonight if we should hear the willow-breaking song,

who could help but long for the gardens of home?

Composed for the Music X Festival 2010, Blonay, Switzerland

Instrumentation: 2 flutes (doubling alto, piccolo), percussion (vibraphone, 2 small gongs, woodblock), piano

Duration: 9 minutes

Arranged in 2022 for 2 flutes and piano