Output details

Marlacoo

Marlacoo is a large-scale work for piano solo, cast in a single movement lasting just under an hour. The work was commissioned by Mary Dullea and her recording will be released in August 2013 by the American label, Altarus Records, with the premiere in the University of Sheffield in early October, followed by additional performances in Cardiff, Belfast and Dublin. I have given a research seminar on this work at the University of East Anglia and will deliver a second paper in Sheffield in October.

Research Goals

1) To explore Karol Berger’s concepts of circularity in form (see Bach’s Cycle, Mozart’s Arrow, 2007) and apply this model to contemporary composition

2) To attempt a synthesis of multifarious harmonic systems: serialism, modality and spectralism

Methodology

• To reflect on Berger’s model of circularity in music and extrapolate a means for achieving this in a contemporary work; to derive appropriate musical ideas and to develop an appropriate formal technique. The resulting work schema was highly elaborate and was discussed in a paper I presented in East Anglia. A revision of this paper will appear in the liner notes of the recording.

• To examine the manner in which my own work has made use of different harmonic systems, specifically serial, modal and spectral elements; and to posit a means of unifying them into a single system. This was achieved, in part, by using Ircam’s software package, OpenMusic, to generate spectral fields from a set of nine serial objets. Using processes developed by Tristan Murail (Colombia University), the spectral fields were also expanded to include subharmonics. For much of this highly complex work, every note heard is placed within this spectral/modal/spectral system.