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Solar

In Magnetite (2007) I first became concerned with how to create music that behaves as though it is being shaped by magnetic fields. This manifested itself in two localised ways to create dual sound-worlds – one dynamic (typically involving a rotation of pitches being ‘accelerated’ to produce a registral explosion) and one static (and more hypothetical: I imagined that each vertical chord within a set of vertical chords would interact ‘magnetically’ to produce a static sound state. Hypothetically the chords would ‘attract’ and ‘repel’ one another as well as ‘reversing polarity’). The poet Geoffrey Hill observed of this work: ‘Your work is austerely sensuous and sensuously austere’ (private communication, 2 February 2009). I have responded to this by developing what I term ‘oxymoronic orchestration’: contradictory instrumentation of the same material presented simultaneously, especially when writing for symphony orchestra, where the massive format magnifies such ambiguous intentions. Solar intensifies, refines, and presents with greater clarity magnetic and oxymoronic properties in tandem within the context of a short orchestral work. In doing so, they go beyond being localised orchestration devices to function on a structural level throughout the work. Contradiction is inherent as the music is frequently bursting with energy on the surface (constantly shaped by the dynamic ‘magnetic’ writing described above) but with a slow-burning and intense core (the union of static vertical chords becomes a strongly directed yet still enigmatic trajectory).

Commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra as part of UBS Soundscapes: Pioneers. Première: 10 November 2010, Barbican Hall, London Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Collon, conductor. Further national premières: 20 November 2011, Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, James MacMillan, conductor (broadcast); 14 August 2013, Astor Theatre, Perth, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Paul Daniel, conductor. Studio Recording: 14 November 2013, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Garry Walker, conductor (Radio 3 broadcast).