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Work

2011
Duration:
08' 00"
Instrumentation:
for string Orchestra, ideally at least 6.6.4.4.2 but can work with fewer: minimum would be 4.4.3.3.1
Contents:
one movement

Samples

application/pdf,220k Score (220k) pages 1 - 8© Alex Taylor

External Media on Demand

Programme Note

This work is an exploration of the possibilities of the string orchestra as a body of sound, the orchestra at times acting like one giant super-instrument composed of intricately superimposed layers. Old textures are continually swallowed up, recycled and transformed, playing out a finely balanced tension between static and active, supple and brittle, strong and fragile. From a fluid, tangled haze, individual voices periodically emerge to assert some kind of nostalgic lyricism, but each time they are ultimately subsumed, swallowed up in an eerie, ambivalent mass of sound. Stylistically the music is varied and eclectic, weaving together the intricate, spidery lines of Ligeti, the delicate chordal sonorities of Messiaen, the caustic anger of Shostakovich and even the brooding menace of Anthony Watson.

Difficulty:
Intermediate
Influences:
Dedication:
to all those affected by the Pike River Mine disaster

Performance History

World Premiere for P: silk / gravel; ARCO, taylor; 270211 27 Feb 2011 Performed by the ARCO string orchestra conducted by Alex Taylor, at the Kerr Street Artspace, in Devonport, Auckland
13 Mar 2011 Performed by the ARCO string orchestra conducted by Alex Taylor, at St Mary’s College Hall, in Auckland

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