Fragments | of Shapes | Hewn | in White | Silence (solo pieces for vln, vla, vlc, db)
- Submitting institution
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University of Durham
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 111819
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- “Fragments | of Shapes | Hewn | in White” consists of four solo works, written for particular string players in 2015. The pieces were individually premiered at the Impuls Festival (Graz), in Oslo, and the UK. The full cycle was premiered by the Crash Ensemble at the National Concert Hall, Dublin (05.05.2017). The cycle is the output of an extended period of research into new notational models for complex four-dimensional bow-movement. Sonically, it explores the timbral spectrum between node-based pitch (harmonics) and extreme distortion, establishing (physical) gestural trajectories to allow for transitions and fluctuations between these timbral states. The goal of the research was to develop a method that would allow the composer to notate complex bow-movement in four dimensions (back and forth (horizontal bowing), up and down the string (vertical bowing), in and out (bow pressure), and time). Previous notational models (Steen-Andersen, Cassidy, Billone, Daverson) necessitated compromise of specificity in one or more of these dimensions, meaning that certain sonic possibilities, resulting from complex action, could not be employed. After a series of workshops and discussions with composers and performers (Isabel Mundy, Pierluigi Billone, Beat Furrer) Egan arrived at a model where duration of the bow-movement is indicated by the thickness of the same line that indicates the physical choreography of the bow on the string. Combined with standard staff notation to indicate the placement of the left hand, this model facilitates the employment complex sonic gestures, resulting from the interaction between light left hand pressure and horizontal/vertical bow movement. By combining exaggeratedly slow and fast bow-speed across the horizontal/vertical axes of the string, a range of complex timbral gestures are produced. These were developed during an extended workshop process involving the musicians for which the first two pieces were composed (Dario Calderone, Seth Woods).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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