by Mike Telin
The adventurous ensemble No Exit begins their 17th season this week with a variety of works that reflect on the unprecedented times in which we are living.
On October 23 at 7:00 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall at Kent State University, No Exit will present “American Descent.” The set list includes Garth Knox’s Viola Spaces, Geoffrey Burleson’s Cryptic Locomotion (premiere of 2025 version), June Young Will Kim’s After days of rain, construction fills the air, and Andrew Rindfleisch’s American Descent (world premiere).
The program will be repeated on Saturday, October 25 at 7:00 pm at Praxis Fiber Workshop. Both performances are free.
I caught up with Andrew Rindfleisch and began our conversation by asking him how he came to compose American Descent.
Andrew Rindfleisch: Seven years ago I wrote a piece called American Monster. That piece dealt with my feelings when governments go amok. And this is derived from that piece. But American Descent is more about my perception of the general decay of society, so the movements follow different aspects of that descent.
The first is “Descending” — the feelings of an out-of-control situation that nobody can do anything about.
MT: What are your thoughts behind the second movement?
AR: “Bread and Circuses:” keep the people entranced — happy — and you can do whatever you want. It’s the one movement that’s a little bit silly, a little bit tongue-in-cheek.
The piece is for 13 players and here there are a lot of repeated musical excerpts for each instrument or groups of instruments that fly around and are paired with other ones, and then the groups switch. It’s the way I feel — kind of dizzy — when social media gets a little bit crazy with misinformation flying around. And once again, there’s nothing anybody can do about it. It’s a really fast movement, with a lot of jabbering in the ensemble, and then it’s over before you know it.
MT: In your program note you say that in the middle movement, “Interlude: Reminiscence,” a distant, far-away music appears as a dream-like interruption of sentiment and reminiscence. What is the dream?
AR: It’s more about the looking back than it is about something specific. There’s always something sad about reminiscence so it’s a kind of sad music that is in real contrast to the other movements in the piece. And it’s at the center for that reason.
MT: And then,“Cruelty.”
AR: People become apathetic to it. They look the other way or ignore it. There’s a kind of numbness that I sense in the culture to that kind of behavior.
The music is orchestrated to create this kind of numbness. There are lots of harmonics and some inside-the-piano techniques, and some very high music that is kind of uncomfortable.
MT: Ultimately you offer some hope in the final movement, “Ascending.”
AR: Yes. It’s kind of a coalescence of musical sounds that come together as an ensemble. It’s almost triumphant at the conclusion, so there’s a sort of happy, hopeful ending to it.
With everything that’s going on today this piece could have a million movements and all of them could be negative. But I wanted to end the piece in a way that made sense musically. The first movement is “Descending” and the last movement is “Ascending.” The two are equal in length and substance. So they’re kind of bookends in that sense.
MT: The piece is for 13 players — what is the instrumentation?
AR: The No Exit players will form its core along with some guest artists who are coming in to enhance the ensemble. In American Monster there were multiples of many of the instruments — it was like a chamber orchestra. But American Descent achieves the same thing with fewer players. By having two pianos, two clarinets, two violins, two violas, two cellos, and three percussion, I can do a lot with that kind of combination of instruments.
MT: How long did you work on the piece?
AR: I work on pieces for a long time in my head before I write anything down, so it’s kind of hard to say. I may percolate on a piece and make decisions about everything for months. And then scramble to write it all down in a few weeks.
The problem with that is sometimes when I start writing it down, I realize that something doesn’t work the way I had anticipated. But when I start writing things down, I like to know exactly where I’m going.
MT: As a composer, do you get nervous going into the first rehearsal?
AR: Not usually. Maybe a long time ago, but not anymore. I know there are not going to be a lot of mistakes in the score because I’ve learned how to show up to a rehearsal with everything ready to roll. I don’t have any nerves about it especially with great players. And I’m not worried about this group of players at all. I just look forward to working with them — I think it’s going to be fun.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com October 23, 2025.
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