'Pluen (feather)' for orchestra, duration c.13 minutes
- Submitting institution
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Royal College of Music
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 27
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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https://www.babelscores.com/catalogs/instrumental/orchestral-music/4278-pluen-feather
- 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
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Refreshing tonal/harmonic method has been a key element of my compositional thinking. This has led to a consideration of musical ‘perspective’ – of how to create a depth of experience, a richness of statement where the listener might encounter a shifting perception of action across related temporal and motive fields. My aim in Pluen (feather) was to generate such a multi-layered and enriched canvas and to articulate in musical terms how it might be achieved. Orchestral music allows (demands?) stratification and my earlier orchestral works have (inevitably) engaged with modes of layering; of activity (Ballata 1995), On the Ringstreet (1997) or cultural memory (Tristan – still (2003)). But my aim in 2018 was to both layer the material and create a stronger sense of internal (or structural) resonance, deepening the potential for new modes of tonal development. My initial sketches, simple harmonisations, sought to contain simultaneously different rates of harmonic movement akin to perceiving distance in perspective drawing. One of these harmonisations took flight and became the seed for the whole, generating a range of event that amplified those initial subtly divergent rates of harmonic change into larger multi-layered structures. Generating extended paragraphs from the core material proceeded to some extent by trial and error though within a strict formal design independent of the source material and consisting of three main sections. A coda was added once it became clear that the lyrical argument, as its detail had developed, required a more extended movement towards final resolution. First performed at the RCM, January 2019. Video recording RCM YouTube channel https://youtu.be/QeTC_ZR8g_0. China premiere, November 2019 as part of the Shanghai International Composers Workshop, by the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall. Further planned performances, including by the Philharmonia Orchestra, on hold due to Covid-19.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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