Thaw: to go from a frozen to a liquid state; to become free of the effect (as stiffness, numbness, or hardness) of cold as a result of exposure to warmth.
Thaw: To abandon aloofness, reserve or hostility.
This music is presented in three sections. The first presentation is somewhat off putting – it is angular and harmonically unstable, modulating to distant places. By the nature of repetition, the second hearing of this music is, presumably, somewhat less perplexing – we are familiar with these sounds now. The third repetition finds the music homogenized, folded into a diatonic world.
The music itself has moved closer to expectation, but in so doing has drawn the listener away from their place of comfort. Both sides have begun to break and crack, to flow towards a common ground.
Listen: Thaw, Illinois State University Symphonic Winds
Roy D. Magnuson 