6 Pies and a Dirge was written in 2008 and is dedicated to the now sadly inactive Ensemble Kore. The original title was to have been 7 Pies for Ensemble which I like because I thought it would often be assumed this was a typographical error for 7 Pieces for Ensemble. I was saddened to hear the news of Mauricio Kagel’s death which came during the composition of the piece. He was a big influence on me, so I felt the need to replace one of the pies with a dirge.
