Walking In Our Own Footsteps – The Circle Game

Justin Morell says: “Sometimes it feels as though we are tracing back over the same challenges—Loren sometimes learns and then forgets. This is not about autism, it is about other issues that he has, but it adds to the complexity of language development. Loren also enjoys the sensation of spinning in his therapy swing, and so it seems circles can be a recurring theme for our family.”

In variation 6, the constant pulse—played first by clarinet and violins—is the constant tracing of the footsteps. The melody is based on the second half of Loren’s theme, and develops freely from there, recycling the same motive in various ways. The challenge with performing this movement is creating a large-scale arc from the beginning to the end of the movement. Gestures in the orchestra are long, and Romantic-feeling, and should blossom out of the footstep pulse. Flute and soprano saxophone are both featured in short but intricate passages near the end of the movement. The “circle game” in the title is reflected in the harmonic progression which, at the end, mirrors the opening in retrograde.

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