IcarUS At thE caBARet VoLtairE: parT I (tHe RENdeZVOus) was composed in the summer of 1985 for the Los Angeles-based guitar duo of Matthew Elgart and Peter Yates. The work was premiered on 18 December 1985 by the Elgart/Yates Duo at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and has since been performed over fifty times throughout the United States and Europe. Much of the work is based on a process of growth/metamorphosis/decay, though these processes are often obscured by the density of their unfolding. Texts from four different languages (German, French, Italian, and English) are arbitrarily juxtaposed, their placement derived from Morse Code and organized according to pre-compositional decisions determined by a deck of playing cards. The result is a self-reflexive caricature of the inherently theatrical nature of musical performance itself, combining exaggerated physical gestures, extended performance techniques, and absurd spoken passages.

IcarUS At thE caBARet VoLtairE is the recipient of a 1987 ASCAP Morton Gould Award and an honorable mention in the 1988 Gaudeamus Prize Competition. The work is included on the album Improbable Encounters (innova 873, 2014).