STF is a large ensemble work in three movements: "Fatwa," "Hitchens," and "Albino Sex." It is scored for piano, double bass, cello, viola, violin, French horn, clarinet in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, flute, baritone, tenor, alto, soprano, narrator, and electronics. Its underlying concept is how religious worldviews can collide with freedom of speech, atheism, and fundamental human rights. In extreme cases, zealots will interpret disease as evidence of divine intervention or even demand the death of blasphemers. The text in the first movement, “Fatwa,” expresses freedom of speech and incorporates passages from Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” The second movement, “Hitchens,” centers on atheism and incorporates two audio excerpts from Christopher Hitchens’s lecture at the 2009 Festival of Dangerous Ideas. In the final movement, “Albino Sex,” I construct a narrative using media headlines, paraphrased biblical verses, and my own text to depict the human rights crisis during the 1980s A.I.D.S. epidemic. Various organizational approaches to text and pitch distinguish one movement from the other; the three movements cohere through unifying devices that I draw from set theory.
