Compression Waves, for orchestra (2005)
Duration: 8’
Score excerpt
MP3 Player
Instrumentation:
Piccolo – 2 Flutes – 2 Oboes – 2 Clarinets in B-flat – 2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F – 3 Trumpets in C – 2 Trombones – Bass Trombone – Tuba
Timpani – Percussion (2 players): glockenspiel, xylophone, woodblock, temple blocks (5), suspended cymbal near small/medium triangle, finger cymbals, large tam-tam, tambourine, brake drum, snare drum, bass drum near large triangle, rainstick
Solo violin – Strings
Premiere:
Peabody Symphony Orchestra; Ana Brajovic, conductor
Friedberg Hall, Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, MD
Spring 2005
Performers in audio recording: Recording from the premiere
Program Notes:
This work explores the fascinating microscopic world of the interval, rarely heard or considered on its own, as experienced through gradually shortening periods of time. It begins with a simple B octave, first in the high strings and winds and gradually descending into the lower-pitched instruments (with some commentary from the timpani). At the moment of complete saturation, fifty-seven measures into the piece, the upper B of the octave descends a half-step and becomes Bb (or A#) and the process begins again, but lasts for only forty-nine measures until the lower B raises a half-step and becomes C and the orchestral development begins anew. In this way, the original interval of the B octave compresses, gradually but in ever-faster waves, until – after the dust settles after the interval of a minor second – all that’s left is a solitary F, played by the solo violin just as it played the B’s to begin the piece.
— October 2005