Icicle — Robert Aitken

Icicle (1977) for solo flute, by Canadian composer, conductor, and flautist Robert Aitken, captures a quintessentially winter soundscape with its highly variable timbral palette. Audible right from the beginning of Nina Assimakopoulos’s 2021 recording, Icicle is saturated with timbres that evoke such cold, wintry imagery as glistening icicles and blowing snow. The wintry timbres in Icicle are created by various extended playing techniques.