“O Vox Pop” composed by Dennis Báthory-Kitsz and performed by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble.

From the Composer: The Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble has always been the recipient of my most adventurous, thoughtful and difficult pieces. Following the premiere of the intense “New Granite” late in 2007, Steve Klimowski asked for something more accommodating to instrumental pleasure, or just more fun. “O Vox Pop” was the result, a piece in two continuous movements. It begins with a sweet, song-like conversation between bass clarinet and bassoon, with slithering harmonies and shifting rhythms. Pausing uncertainly, it then leaps into a rhythmic chase — one instrument first follows and then leads the other, squeezing out the first movement melody and changing places and sweeping across the instruments’ ranges: it is a caccia in rock sensibility. “O Vox Pop” is made for the pleasure of the players and the audience.