D & C

D & C for large orchestra is an acoustic edifice: not an illustratively animated portrait of a city but-its very structural backbone: corners, pillars, walls, facades. Though no specific architectonic images or particular cities are invoked, similarities are not coincidental, for instance to the five final fist-blows that will ultimately destroy the city in Kafka 's story "The City Coat Of Arms·: which open D & C and repeatedly cut swathes through the images. From a compositional standpoint, the various parts of the work are developed as variants on the pitches of D and C.

"All the legends and songs that came to birth in that city are filled with longing for a prophesied day when the city would be destroyed by five successive blows from a gigantic fist. lt is for that reason too that the city has closed fist on its coat of arms." Franz Kafka: The City Coat of Arms