To be determined... - Flute, Clarinet and Piano

To be determined... by David DeBoor Canfield is a trio for flute, clarinet and piano. It has 6 movements which should not be played in the printed movement order, but determined by some means of chance. One possibility could come by rolling a die prior to the performance until five of the six numbers are chosen (the sixth being the number that is remaining). A perhaps more interesting and faster method of determining the order could be accomplished by taking the lowest six cards of any suit out of a deck, handing them to an audience member to shuffle and then read the resulting order of numbers. Whatever means is used, the performers should announce the order of the movements prior to their performance of the piece.

The six movements are:

• Tempus Fugit (A fast movement, lasting only a minute)
• Chronos (The ancient Greek word for time, the movement suggesting the regular flow of time, although there are interruptions which can be viewed as the fact that time doesn't seem to progress at an even rate in any day in someone's life).
• Metronome (A regular pulse movement, but the piece speeds up through its course, as the student practicing with one perceives that the metronome is speeding up when he comes to a difficult spot in the music! This movement is written in dodecaphonic style, with the opening solo statement of the tone row in the left hand of the pianist repeated at various pitch levels through the piece, while the other hand and the two winds play various retrograde versions of the row above it.)
• A Timely Love Song (The only completely tonal - including use of key signatures - movement in the work. Here is displayed the concept of time is as it relates to an event of importance being well-placed within the course of a day's events.)
• Catch Me If You Can! (A bat-out-of-hell movement, written without meter signature, where the performers may play as fast as possible without worrying about keeping 'in time' with each other. The piece represents the often-hectic character of trying to fit events in one's life into time constraints.)
• Little Lopsided March (A march-like piece utilizing the irregular 5/4 and 3/8 meters, again to suggest that time marches on, even if not seemingly regularly. Since this movement, the last to be composed, was finished on January 1st of 2020, Canfield decided to end it with a plagal cadence, his 'New Year's Resolution'! )

Thus, if this work is performed as Canfield intended, the movement order will be one of 6! (or 720) different orderings, making it possible that the version heard at a particular performance may be unique among any that will ever be given of this work.