The Angel Of The Odd

Randall Woolf: "The Angel Of The Odd" concerto for flute and orchestra was written in 2016. The piece was premiered by Tara Helen O'Connor, flute, and Ransom Wilson, conductor, with the SUNY Purchase Symphony Orchestra.

“So much of the music I've written and listened to lately has a very regular, machine-like rhythm...music played by machines, or by people playing like machines. I love a lot of it, but am really getting tired of it, and have been looking for new sources for rhythmic ideas. I have found many of them in what you might call "pre-country" music: mountain music, early blues, fiddlers, and guitar-playing solo singers. There are small hiccups in the rhythms and pitches too, that seem haphazard at first, but in the end are very precise and precisely repeated. It's a kind of microscopic rhythmic detail that really enlivens the texture of the music. I am also fascinated by the simple, fateful-sounding song forms, two sections alternating in a way that lends a sense of gravity and premonition to the mood. I wanted to capture this and more in my concerto. In hunting for a title that would capture the 'tales told round the campfire' tone of the piece, I bumped into a short story by Edgar Allen Poe called "The Angel Of The Odd." The story has nothing to do with the piece, but I thought the title fit the piece, and decided to borrow it.”

Randall Woolf

Score available from the composer at randy.woolf@gmail.com