Wolven for Solo Flute

This piece for solo flute was written for Emily Beynon in 2019, and commissioned by the Norwegian Flute Festival. The intended premiere was moved online due to the pandemic, and can be seen on YouTube.

The piece is based on an Arabic scale (maqam) which provides some interesting intervallic relationships, and takes as its subject matter captive wolves, and the pent-up energy which derives from being in a cage.

Wolven is two pages long and takes around 3 minutes to perform. The underlying tempo is slow, creating a sense of tension, but the rhythmic inventiveness that Ornstein makes use of stops it from ever becoming overly still or predictable. The music opens in the low register, creating a dark and somewhat ominous atmosphere, from which outbursts of grace notes and faster rhythms appear. Within the first page Ornstein is already using the full range of the flute, creating a dramatic and exciting sense of energy. The music is well structured, with the thematic ideas developed sufficiently to balance both repetition and move-ment. There is a sense of going full circle, returning to the low register at the end.

This is a great alternative to some of the more established solo flute works, such as Syrinx or Danse de la Chèvre, and is of a similar level of difficulty. There's plenty of space here to create a sense of atmosphere and energy, and to demonstrate fast runs, tone production and rhythmic control across the whole range of the flute, from low B to high C. Definitely worth exploring!