Output details

Palimpsest for brass ensemble

This piece develops a number of textural resources that combine to offer a fresh perspective on composing for large brass ensemble. A central aim was to cultivate the introspective expressive potential of this medium. The piece unfolds as a series of varied interactions between two contrasting textural archetypes. In formulating the recurring 'veil-like' idea (entering b.2) I aimed to abstract something of the tenuated and suspended character of Giacinto Scelsi's writing for ensemble (in pieces such as /Quattro Pezzi su una nota sola/). This is set into relief by a more mobile, interruptive staccato texture, entering in b.5).

These textural experiments are the manifestation of a more poetic and visual impetus, namely the superimposition of multiple layers of text onto a writing surface. The idea of a palimpsest expressed in sound is not in itself a novel idea. Whilst preparing this piece I consulted works with similar titles by Iannis Xenakis and George Benjamin and in their own ways they construct analogies for decay and obscuration. However, the process of formulating musical ways of representing the erosion and transformation of visual artefacts over time is one of my on-going research concerns. To this end, the opening section establishes the underlying surface onto which layers are gradually added and over time the integrity and stability of the surface are eroded and abstracted. Underpinning the harmonic organisation of the gradually shifting 'veil' texture (present throughout the opening twelve pages) is a series of interval cycles that progress gradually to imbue the framework with an inexorable character. This underlying harmonic framework was set in place as a preliminary stage in the conception of the piece but in the course of sculpting materials and over-writing subsequent layers the 'edges' of these units became blurred, further contributing to an overall sound world characterised by erosion.