Chelsea Komschlies
Born 1991, in Appleton, Wisconsin
Instrumentation
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, celesta, strings
Performance time
6 minutes
Premiered
August 11, 2019, at Aspen Music Festival, Aspen, Colorado
Last Performed by the TSO
January 7, 2024

A darkened orb, long dormant, and unseen by human eye
Begins to stir and wake at last, and glow within, and rise:
This, Of a great new dawn, the turning of the age, a sign

The piece is in the form of a perpetual increasing of intensity from beginning to end (the image of a sunrise). The music begins dark, violet, and glittering, and eventually builds to a spinning, red-golden vision that is both beautiful and terrifying.

Chelsea Komschlies