Homeland for solo flute

Commissioned by The Texas Flute Society for the 2018 Myrna Brown Competition

PROGRAM NOTE

Homeland was written shortly after Hurricane Maria stormed through Puerto Rico in 2017. Maria represented the increasing strength of natural disasters and the intense, sometimes deadly, repercussions of climate change. While this was going on, there was also a rise of political and social turmoil in the United States, and global unrest throughout the world, including the Civil War crisis in Syria. For weeks, the news was flooded with these stories. With so many people throughout the world dealing with tragic domestic issues, I began to think about the meaning of home during a crisis. What does home mean when the land has been destroyed? What does it mean when there’s been a political disaster, or a human disaster? How does a person feel patriotic when they feel unwelcomed at the same time? Homeland is a musical interpretation and exploration of those questions. The flute opens with timbral trills representing troubled waters, then transitions into passages that are anxious and distorted. There is a moment of hope and optimism, a remembrance of past struggles that have been overcome, followed by an off-putting play on the Star Spangled Banner, representing an unraveling of patriotism. In the end we come full circle, still with unanswered and unresolved questions.

Homeland is a companion piece to Say Can You (for solo piccolo and electronics).

— Allison Loggins-Hull

PERFORMANCE NOTE

All trills are timbral. Fingerings are indicated in the score. Accidentals carry throughout the bar.