Blue Emotion for flute sextet

For anyone who has seen the movie, Inside Out, one thing is clear: Sadness is the unlikely heroine. Her counterpart, Joy, has always thought Sadness was there just to get in the way. However, in both the movie and in real life, Sadness is necessary for processing difficult situations (such as 11/8 meter). The slower tempos throughout this piece reflect how Sadness helps us slow down in order to regain ourselves. Once we have allowed her to have her say, we can begin to move on. She is, quite literally, the blue emotion, and the counter intuitive gateway to Joy.

The mood of this piece is heavy and somber. Occasionally there are high-register moments that appear to become joyful, but always return to a melancholic state. Such is the reminder from this piece that one shouldn’t expect to be always happy, and that negative emotions are an indicator that something can be made better.

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