Work
Dulcet Tones
for violin, cello and piano
Films, Audio & Samples
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About
The initial harmonic material for this work was derived from spectral analyses of tuning fork strokes. This small device enables me to realise pitches (internally) while working on a score, and its subtle tone is audible only in close proximity to my ear. I was drawn to this sense of interiority, and to the interesting shifts of timbre between the tuning fork’s attack and resonance.
The title refers both to this sweetness of tone colour, and tangentially to the dulcitone: a Nineteenth-Century keyboard instrument comprised of tuning forks struck by hammers – a precursor to the Fender Rhodes.
Commissioned note
Commissioned by NZTrio with funding from Creative New Zealand.
Dedication note
Dulcet Tones was composed for NZTrio, in whose collaboration I find continual inspiration.