and one thing leads to another . . . was written for Angela Schwarzkopf and Étienne Levesque. It is the last (so far) in a series of five-movement pieces written for plucked and percussive instruments, starting with The Stars Within Us (guitar and piano, 2010) and continuing with The Angels’ Share (marimba and piano, 2019) and The Passage of Time (marimba and guitar, 2021).
and one thing leads to another . . . unfolded in an unusual way. I started with the movement that I thought would be at the centre, the movement that I typically include, that drifts from one beautiful idea to the next with no apparent sense of direction. When I finished that movement, I was very taken with it, but could not imagine anything coming after, so I decided that it would be the final movement “Music for Morning”. I then wrote movement 4, starting with the final gesture, as something that would lead into movement 5. It then seemed necessary to start movement 4 and aim the final gesture that I had just written. This process continued until each movement was complete, written in the order 5-4-3-2-1. All movements are open-ended, leading into the next, hence that title.
and one thing leads to another . . . was premiered by Angela and Étienne at the Ottawa Chamberfest on August 1, 2022.
