S.T.I.C. (1995) - Dan Becker

for fl, cl, vln, vc, pno
Commissioned by Alternate Currents Ensemble;
Premiered June, 1995 - San Francisco, CA

S.T.I.C. stands for "Sensitivity To Initial Conditions", a variation on a phrase and phenomena often used in Chaos Theory. The basic premise is that as a system or entity evolves, small attributes or ‘wrinkles’ in the original entity turn unexpectedly into major features or ‘chasms’. Or in systems terminology: tiny differences in input quickly become overwhelming differences in output. S.T.I.C. starts out with a simple 5-bar, 20-note riff that continues to spiral out, growing and mutating. What at first might be a 2-note gesture becomes an entire section later down the road. By the time we reach the last ‘mutation’ (or variation), the original 5-bar riff has mutated and expanded into a multi-sectioned hunk of over 100 bars.