LIP SERVICE
FOR FLUTE, DOUBLE BASS, AND PERCUSSION
20 minutes
Program Notes
Lip Service is the third and final set of instrumental pieces based on lines excerpted from a collection of emails accidentally received by my friend Jeffrey K. Miller. As with the other two sets–Why are you not answering? and Is it Auburn?–Lip Service, takes its starting point from the strange emotional worlds implied by the extracted lines. For Lip Service the first email, Better find those little blue pills if you plan on giving her more than lip service, is a letter of advice sent to Jeffrey from an unknown friend. The second email, Halfway?, is in fact the entire email. It refers to a meeting point halfway between Jeffrey and the woman’s home. As far as I know, the meeting never took place. The third email, I am hidden my dear for you!!!, perhaps explains the failed meeting, but we cannot be certain.
Lip Service was commissioned by Concert Black and premiered May 24, 2011 by Concert Black at Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY.
Recording by Concert Black. Available on the album RE: You from New Focus Recordings, and is available on Apple Music and Amazon Music.
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Performances
April 7, 2023 UT Austin, Texas. Sam Wheeler, James Tabata, Annabel MacDonald.
November 5, 2017 University of Michigan School of Music, Ann Arbor, MI. Jonathan Mashburn.
May 8, 2017 Hatch Recital Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY. Hannah Weaver.
January 17, 2016 Recital Hall, LSU School of Music, Baton Rouge, LA. Justin Greene.
September 27, 2014 Permutations, DiMenna Center for the Arts, New York, NY. Concert Black.
July 22, 2014 Fairbanks Festival, Davis Concert Hall, Fairbanks, AL. Concert Black.