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The Shades of Hegemony
Date Completed:June 3, 1989
Duration:about 8 minutes
Instrumentation:oboe, clarinet in B flat, violin, cello and piano
First Performance:University of Akron New Music Group, who first performed it on June 20, 1989 at Lakeland Community College in Mentor, OH and again on October 8, 1989 at the Akron Art Museum (Cynthia Warren - oboe, Melanie Richards - clarinet, Philip Baldwin - violin, Gregory Fiocca - cello with myself "at the piano").
Program Notes:This suite of tunes from my little music drama Hegemony: Scenes (1983-2007) was made for one of the first concerts of the University of Akron New Music Group, who first performed it on June 20, 1989 at Lakeland Community College in Mentor, OH and again on October 8, 1989 at the Akron Art Museum (Cynthia Warren - oboe, Melanie Richards - clarinet, Philip Baldwin - violin, Gregory Fiocca - cello with myself "at the piano"). In the mean time I've learned a few things and revised it, going back in time to help my younger self with all the skills developed since then.

When revisions of the opera ended I wrote:
"This work, called Hegemony: Scenes, is a cycle extracted from the opera Hegemony. It consists of the scenes involving precocious characters I fondly call the kids, who are either innocent puppies or vicious monsters, depending on circumstance and whim. Over the years since the completion of the opera (as yet unproduced) they have grown increasingly insistent that they should be given a fair hearing - even to the point of reassembling in my dreams - the three sisters shrill and nasty, the two boys increasingly haggard and despondent. Alex has even declared that failing a captive orchestra, life with a lone overworked piano is better than no life at all."

Since then Tom Piechowski, creator of those characters and the words they sing, has died. He never had the chance to see it brought to life on the stage - and for that matter I doubt anyone ever will. I've snatched a few moments from Oblivion's Maw, dusted them off and tried to make them presentable for company.

And so...

these Shades of Hegemony are dedicated

to the memory of Thomas Piechowski.