Burning Sled

Composed at Yaddo during July of 2003, Hagen's song cycle for baritone and string quartet Alive in a Moment functions both as an instrumental string quartet and as a traditional song cycle. In seven movements, based on the poetry of W.H. Auden, the entire work develops three musical ideas given at the outset: a rhythmic tattoo in the violin, what the composer calls a 'smudged melody,' created by adding trills to each successive note of the melody, and heavy glissandi. Formally, the central movement is an instrumental interlude flanked parenthetically by the outer movements. Commissioned by the Amernet Society and Northern Kentucky University for Paul Kreider and the Amernet String Quartet, the cycle was first performed on 8 October 2003 at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. more>>>