Go low

 I would describe this piece as an experiment in the concept of perception and instrumentation. First of all the main concept is that all the instrument play in their lowest register for the most part of the piece. This was the original idea and I wanted to do this for two main reasons, one being that I have always loved the sound of the low register in any instrument, and the other one being that it was interesting to see how nature forced its hand on the music. For some instruments it is impossible to control the dynamic and this made some interesting changes in balance. A simple example is that an alto flute will always drown trying to play a fortissimo against a bass clarinet in the low register, and the English horn could hardly control its dynamics at all. This is something that can easily be “fixed” by re-arranging the notes in a more classical fashion, which I understand. This would however defeat the purpose of the instrumentational experiment.

 The perception of change is interesting, because it is very subjective, and therefor a challenging concept to work with. The beginning part of the piece develops very slowly. The direction of the change should be almost perceptible. One should have the feeling of the same thing happening over and over again but at the same time subtly perceiving the development. In the second part the rhythm becomes scattered, while it also moves towards being more simple. This should give the feeling of the music falling apart at the same time as being brought together. This paradoxal feeling of change also happens on a smaller scale. In bar 65-72 I have orchestrated an “infinity glissando”, which is a glissando that has the feeling of always moving upwards but actually moves downwards in register and therefore tricks the perception.