Landscape IV. Composition for Trio (Piano, Clarinet, Cello). Commissioned by the Pacific Clarinet Trio. Premiered at the Grand Living Room, Vancouver, March 2020.
- Submitting institution
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Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- Finch1
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- March
- Year
- 2020
- 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
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- Criminology
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- Interdisciplinary
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- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
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- Reserve for an output with double weighting
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- Additional information
- The ‘landscape’ genre I’ve developed since 1994 focuses on proportion, timbre and texture - influenced by spectral aesthetics but deliberately avoiding notational and instrumental extensions. The harmonic language is pantonal, with overlapping pentatonic cells creating rows that modulate across the octave – e.g.: bar 1: Fsharp-E-D-A-G; bar 5-6: G-F-C-Aflat-Eflat; etc - with G as the pivotal note linking the cells. Melodic lines unfold like Xenakis’ arborescences (Evryali, Khoaï-Zoai), but relying more on quasi-improvisational exploration than stochastic processes to achieve a sense of harmonic floating. Phrases are arranged in loose recurrences, like reflections in rippling water, and are offset by decaying piano resonance or silence. The resulting stasis is reminiscent of Feldman (Piano, Palais de Maris) where the natural decay of piano sonorities is a primary expressive element. Aesthetically, the intention is to create an inner environment, where narrative gives way to a numinous awareness of time and space. What is unusual is the insertion of these experimental concepts into the context of ‘received’ idioms. Conventional gestalts such as the keening descending phrases from bar 98-116 or the rising, heaven-gazing pizzicato arpeggios in bars 63-84 and 117-136 elicit memories that function like the ‘notion of time’ that is ‘outside time’ in Xenakis’ theory of ‘out of time’ structures [Varga, Conversations with Iannis Xenakis, London 1996, p 83]. The experimental concepts of time and space are also transplanted onto the convention of sonata form. The epiphanic climax of this structural dichotomy comes in the final section (from bar 166) where the exposition (bar 1-45) is recapitulated almost exactly in terms of pitch material, but completely transformed in texture and mood and with melody both slowed down by the clarinet’s and cello’s unison phrases and run through in fast motion by the piano’s arabesque-like flourishes (bars 175-178 and 183-190).
Proof of date: http://www.douglasfinch.com/events/
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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