CONTEMPORARY ART MUSIC
Exploration
Exploration presents an atmosphere of intrigue, curiosity, and unpredictability, while also maintaining coherence and a sense of an underlying thread in motion. To achieve this experimentation centred around the octatonic scale as a device and only using a limited number of pitches. Melodic material is used in a minimalistic and economical way, transforming and developing throughout. As the piece advances the focus shifts towards the contrast between tonal and tonally ambiguous passages. This enables the composition to retain unexpectedness as it moves back and forth between the two, whilst at the same time, building and reinforcing an element of tension in the unsettled, gestural, atonal moments and providing a sense of resolution with tonal melodic passages.
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Exploration was performed by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
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Textures/Gestures
An electroacoustic study of textures and gestures, exploring emergence, transition, release, and overall structure. Processing techniques have been utilised to obscure the original sources of the sounds, while also highlighting their inherent characteristics to create a dialogue between the juxtaposing gestural and textural material.
Music composed for loudspeakers. Stereo loudspeaker or headphone listening recommended.
Tempest
The Tempest, a poem by James T. Fields, was the initial inspiration for the piece, taking into account the physical effects of a storm both whilst in progress and in the time shortly afterwards. The aim was to create a turbulent atmosphere, ebbing and flowing, reflecting the freedom of weather and creating the essence of a storm using manmade sounds. The format of the words as set out in the poem was used as a guide to form the basis of the structure for the composition, such as mirroring the spoken elements with the inclusion of voice samples within the texture and in relation to the build-up of the storm through its progression towards the climaxes and resulting calm.
Music composed for loudspeakers. Stereo loudspeaker or headphone listening recommended.