Gorgon's Head II for violin and piano
- Submitting institution
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The University of Manchester
: B - Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : B - Music
- Output identifier
- 70316851
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- February
- Year
- 2018
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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B - Music
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This work was premiered in Manchester in February 2018 with subsequent performances in Valencia, Quart de Poblet and Villamarxante, Spain. A recording is available at https://youtu.be/H5MBlZ6yIB8.
The first objective was to apply the notion of organic growth to musical structure by building a piece from a single initial fragment that develops from within. Inspired by the Gorgon’s Head starfish, whose tendrils branch out from one another like a tree, the research methodology used the Medieval technique of troping, where new parts are added to existing music: an initial 10-second fragment was expanded cumulatively over five movements, each one a ‘lens’ creating a sense of moving to a different level of magnification. Every new movement repeats the material of the previous one exactly, but tropes it from within: thus the listener is ‘taught’ in stages how to hear the piece. This approach was informed by Lutoslawki’s notion (e.g. string quartet, second symphony) of the ‘hesitant’, where material is introduced in simplified format before the ‘main movement’ is heard, and drew structurally on the linear branching process of Xenakis’s 'Evryali'.
The second objective was to challenge the relationship between violin and piano through systematic comparison of the instruments’ timbral qualities. Informed by Elliott Carter’s 'Duo for Violin and Piano' (1974), which pits the two instruments against one another, and the gestures, textures and instrumentation of Xenakis’s 'Dikthas', the methodology here allows the instruments’ relationship to grow organically: beginning with sounds that are deliberately as similar as possible, they gradually develop their own sense of identity emphasising the violin’s expressive arco and the piano’s resonance.
The research provided insights into the potential of musical form involving exponential growth through repetition and cumulative addition of material, and how the relationship between instruments in an ensemble can be used as the basis for structure.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
