Output details

Nightfall. Composition for flute, clarinet, violin & ‘cello. Commissioned by Ex Novo Ensemble. Premiere: Conservatorio

Benedetto Marcello, Venice, 17 October, 2011. Broadcast on RAI3. Subsequent performances: OENM (Salzburg ‘Kunstverein’, November, 2011; London Ear Festival, 2013.); FLAME (Weimar, 2013. Score and CD recording. URL and hard copy evidence date of dissemination.

The principal musical objective in Nightfall was to explore the paradox whereby a degree of generalisation at one level can lead to clarity and definition at another. A metaphor for this phenomenon is embodied in the title ‘Nightfall’: that moment when light is failing and complex details on visible structures become increasingly less clear, whilst outlines become strongly pronounced. Furthermore, two or more objects may merge, giving the illusion of a single object. In musical terms this implied researching possibilities as to how different instrumental combinations and playing modes, along with various personal compositional techniques, could create material in which the overall ‘mass’ of sound is prioritised over the audibility of detail, without loss of subtlety. Significantly, simplification and/or ‘generalisation’ (non-specificity) of material was found to be an unsatisfactory means of achieving this, leading to an overt, oversimplified ‘two-dimensional’ character, devoid of inner tension or direction. The intended ‘smudging’ effect was ultimately achieved, for much of the piece, by the interaction of complex, closely entangled melodic lines, often in similar registers and in conjunction with timbral distortions, in which the combined direction(s) of flow define the prevailing musical character, (passages from bars 68, 94, 218 etc.). The resulting material suggests its own inner subtlety without fully revealing it. This could then be set off against moments of simple rhythmic unison, where subtlety lies only in the rhythmic and gestural shape, (from bars 85, 122, etc). These two classes of material are also presented simultaneously, (passages from bars 130, 134, 138 etc.).