Kaleidoscope for String Septet

Kaleidoscope (4 violins, viola, cello, and double bass) sets out to be the aural equivalent of a kaleidoscope's ever-mutating patterns and colours. This project has been gestating for ages, yet remains as a draft for a bigger piece.

Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...

mm
Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/kaleidoscope

If you wish, you can read the score (in pdf format) here. It will open in a new window so you can follow the score while you listen.
Both the (mp3) recording and the score are free and downloadable.
mm
I've deliberately selected a mono-chromatic photo to represent my piece because the music employs only string timbre... it awaits a future project to significantly vary the instrumental colour palette as well. This 'limitation', however, enabled me to focus on harmonic colour. Another huge advantage of 100% string instrumentation is the ability of strings to blend so seamlessly - very useful to my purposes here.
m

The project was inspired principally by the French composer Perotin (of the late 12th century Notre Dame School)... but actually sounds very little like him (oh, how I do delight in being contrary and annoyingly cryptic :-) I've always been impressed by the vision and magnificence of Perotin's organa such as Viderunt Omnes (this link to Youtube opens in a new window: after listening, simply close it, and you'll be back here). Its cornucopia of cascading sound was Perotin's musical response to the glittering kaleidoscopic refractions of light flooding in through the enormous stained glass windows of the then newly-completed gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. One can't help also recalling Messiaen for the same reason, of course... I'm sure they would have enjoyed a chat.
mm

Magister Perotin was in awe of the sheer height of the cathedral's lofty ceiling, which soared vertiginously above all the comparitively squat architecture of the conventional Romanesque architecture of the day. It was this which prompted him expand the music of his predecessor Leonin from two parts to four, a vertical expansion analagous to the very cathedral in which the music was to be performed. Now, with four parts, Perotin could now weave a denser musical web of sound, more a massed sonic "fabric" rather than the limpid clarity of Leonin's two polyphonic strands. Not only creative and visionary, but mighty courageous, I'd say. Respect, dude... high fives, etc. The Beethoven of the 12th century, no less.

m

Perotin, like most church musicians of the time, composed by successively adding melodic layers above the Cantus Firmus, or lowest voice. The Cantus Firmus (CF) was usually a melodic fragment of Gregorian Chant, but stretched out to be so glacially slow that its melodic character was effectively denied, serving instead simply as a musical foundation (these days it's the 'bass') on which to build upwards. This not only offered the composer ready-made tonal structure on which to add his own layers, but conveniently ensured that the church could not criticize the music for ignoring God or the liturgy. However by contrast, in my piece Kaleidoscope, the CF is both freely composed and decidedly secular - vaguely inspired by the theme from the Pink Panther. Those slow-moving parallel fifths appealed to my Debussy-inspired bad-boy streak, my love of questioning not only the What but also the Why of the so-called "Rules" of music. Anyone in the Arts who adheres to Rules needs to be interrogated under hot lights.

m

For instance, one of the traditional cornerstones among the Rules of conventional part-writing is the preference for "contrary motion"... eg, when one part falls, the other[s] rise, etc. So [perversely], I decided to move all my parts in similar or parallel motion. The four lowest parts [comprising the CF] move solidly in parallel octaves and fifths (8,5,16,32) - hence the faint suggestion of the Pink Panther. As with mediaeval organum, this is, in reality, a 'thickened' single line, the cello, viola, and fourth violin merely reinforcing the contrabass by amplifying its primary overtones. To get high enough, in fact, the fourth violin plays in harmonics throughout, soaring quietly over the other violins, creating not so much a melodic contribution of its own but a faint and mysterious overtone haze. Only at the Chorale-style coda are the four instruments in this lower group given any real melodic independence from each other - this is purposefully done at that point in order to prompt the listener's expectations of a more conventional polyphonic 'tonal' environment.

m

Likewise, the three violins jointly constitute [for the most part] another single thickened line, tightly bound together, moving mostly similar motion like strands of a rope. I nursed the very tactile image of shoppers jostling in the crowded alleys between market stalls - personal space in Thailand is practically a non-issue. I also imagined the violin "trio" as a metaphor for a churning river of sound, like a painter twisting his brush as he moves it over the canvas. These three strands are melodically independent of each other, but I made them obey several self-imposed restrictions (mm, yeah, OK..."rules"!):

m

1. The three strands are confined mostly within a narrow tessitura of [about] a fourth. When an upper or lower voice rises or falls, the others are obliged to follow [albeit in a quite elastic manner] in order to respect that narrow tessitura. That way, the ear is more likely to hear them as a single entity, a broad 'ribbon' of sound.

m

2. Harmony is mostly quartal/secondal. Some conventional chordal moments do occur, but only as momentary flashes of colour as if from facets of a revolving diamond. Relatively rare events like this are non-functional for the most part, and (statistically speaking) democratically represented within the extensive universe of intervallic possibilities inherent within the span of a fourth.

m

3. As with all harmony, quartal or otherwise, the succession of chords may be chosen to manipulate levels of relative consonance and dissonance. Needless to say, it is impossible to build a conventional triad within the span of a fourth. A chord built from two major seconds will sound relatively consonant by comparison to one built from a major second plus a minor second. Two minor seconds will seem even more dissonant. More so three... which is possible here because the violins are heard as an 'overlay' on top of the Cantus Firmus, generating almost limitless gradations of harmony and dissonance for the composer to manipulate. The three voices are not related to each other in any conventional sense according to the Rules of harmony or counterpoint, except at times of my strategic choice where I choose to hint salaciously at tonal direction. 

m

4. Staying roughly within the tessitura of a fourth does not preclude the three violins from approaching each other even more closely at chosen moments in order to generate increased harmonic tension [eg, see bars 17/18 and bar 38]. This process is the logical continuation of a thousand years worth of music history: the exploration of the harmonic potential of the upper end of the Overtone Series. It's already been done in Electronic Music because technology has made it easily possible. But it pays to keep things in perspective - Monteverdi in the seventeenth century was howled down by critics for using unacceptable dissonance... and he had done no more than write a 7th chord whose 7th wasn't suitably 'prepared in advance'. Um.

m

5. Importantly, the three violins should mostly remain rhythmically independent of each other. This deliberate offsetting of rhythms vastly increases the number of momentary passing chords and harmonic colours available on the composer's palette, sometimes two or three changes per quarter-note beat. It is the very genesis of the title "Kaleidoscope". This also serves to suppress any unequivocal sense of beat, which is left more to the slower-moving lower group, creating the effect of superimposing a fast movement over a slow one. The effect of such rhythmic independence in the trio is analagous to that of the painter smudging one colour into the next in gradual transition of hue.

m

In summary, while the score requires seven instruments, these actually function in two groups, ie., I conceived this essentially as two-part music [low in opposition to high]. Most of the time there is space between the two groups, as well as contrasting rhythms, so the ear may more easily distinguish them from each other. The bass group moves in a generally lower realm than the treble group, which prefers to soar higher in my conceptual Cathedral of sound-colour. On occasion, however, they do briefly collide and fuse. Between the two groups there is no consistent use of contrary motion: according to the dramatic needs of the moment, you will hear a mixture of similar and contrary motion.

m
All this talk of breaking rules seems a bit hollow when you suddenly realize that the entire piece is securely in the key of C. Not C-major, thank Buddha, but "C-centric": I weave a texture of harmonies around the note of C, not the chord of C. In a quasi-conventional way, there are vague tonal implications as the music approaches the dream sequence beginning at bar 26. The music gravitates back to the note of C at structurally significant points (eg., an implied cadence on C at bar 33, in spite of the G# bass(!); bar 38; a rise to high C at bar 38; implied cadences at bars 43-4. The final chord is also built on the note C but is intentionally 'unstable' in conventional terms, but is heard as stable by contrast to the body of the piece. But (horrors!) you'll hear pure C-major scales in bars 46-9; and the final chorale from bar 50. Even at the opening, the violins highlight the high notes e'' and g'' in bars 12 and 17... all very conventional stuff if subjected to the scrutiny of Shenkerian analysis).

m

Post-script: Because my piece was written specifically for computer-generated performance, I allowed myself to take the liberty of writing the double-bass part right down to low C below the bass clef. This enabled the double-bass to, as it were, creep slowly out of the Creation Swamp at the start, then crawl back quietly into it at the end. Why? Cuz I enjoy the noise it makes on the computer - I don't care too much that real double-basses can't play down that far... (yet).

 Pierre Gorgon-Symes:
Sometimes I sits and thinks. Sometimes I just sits.
A composer is probably working hardest when staring blankly out a window.

Fantasia on a Theme from "Buppha Rahtree"

 
What's a sweet little Thai schoolgirl like this doing brandishing a dripping cuthroat razor? I recently watched a sub-titled Thai language horror/romance/comedy ghost movie titled Buppha Rahtree 3.2 ("Buppha's Revenge") and sensed under-exploited musical potential in its theme - hence my latest composition, below.
(If you want to hear the original theme first, you could view the film's brief trailer here on Youtube. It will open in a new window. the tune is heard right at the start).

Be. Very. Afraid... but to hear my adaption of the theme music, click on the orange PLAY button...



m
Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/fantasia-on-a-theme-from
mm
If you wish, you can read the SCORE (in pdf format) here.  Instrumentation: flute, violin, cello, double-bass, synth and piano.
This link will open in a new window so you can follow the score  while listening to the music. Both the score and the mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
mm

This is more an independent composition than a straight arrangement of the film's theme. The two falling semitones (Eb-D-C#) heard in the ominous opening are heard again when the main theme begins in the flute, but they appear buried in the accompaniment. The climax of the piece (at Rehearsal letter E) occurs at the 'golden mean' - which I always measure in time, rather than bar numbers - because bars are not always the same length.
mm

---

For the record, here's the poster, featuring the usual de rigeur Thai heart-throbs:

Thai people know for sure that ghosts exist. Ghosts and spirits are integral to Thai stories and legends, but also feature heavily in the reality of normal Thai daily life. In Thailand, "Spirits of the land" have been living here forever, and we humans are ephemeral visitors in their eternal realm. We must accord them respect as elders and owners and ensure they have an attractive place to live - which accounts for the spirit house attached to virtually every house, shop or condominium. Keep 'em happy and feed 'em, and they won't disturb us.
m
However, some ghosts can prove more problematic. Ghosts of people who have recently died may not yet "understand" that they are in fact dead, and continue to roam around seeking their family and friends - until such time as a local monk performs a ceremony to inform the ghost that it's time to 'cross over'. Or, worse, a few malevolent ghosts seek revenge for violent deaths - which was the case with our cute little razor-slashing schoolgirl in the film Buppha Rahtree.
Read more about Thai ghosts here.
m

Er, no, it's not a ghost... it's my alter ego in the morning before coffee.
Hey, nothing makes any sense before coffee.

SO glad you could visit my blog.
It's been lovely - but I have to scream now.

Quartetus Interruptus (The "Nokia Quartet") for woodwind trio and mobile phone

Telephones are considerably more mobile they were in the Good Old Days... nowadays they have mutated into Machiavellian Devices specifically designed for interrupting classical concerts at crucial moments. Therefore I felt impelled to write a Woodwind Quartet (oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon) to immortalize the insistent penetration of the Nokia Corporation into the musical fabric of Western Culture. There is nothing especially novel or innovative about this - many mediaeval motets of the 13th century, too, had street-vendor jingles of the day woven into their fabric.
m
Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...


m
Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/quartetus-interruptus-the
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (in pdf format) here.
A transposed performance score is available here.
Each of these links will open in its own window so you can scroll thru while listening to the music. Both score and mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
m
Did u know that Nokia's irritating little tune was surgically extracted from a classical guitar solo by Francisco Tárrega (his "Gran Vals"). You can hear it here on Youtube... it will open in a new window. Thanks for nothing, Frank.


As Howard Dietz once quipped, "Composers shouldn't think too much - it interferes with their plagiarism".  My Quartet is probably (as with most "original" compositions) a subconcious re-editing of various pieces I've enjoyed but "forgotten", a sort of musical potage-compilation. It's deliberately "pretty" - and there's a good reason for that. I wanted it to sound like a prim and proper little mainstrean chamber piece, the accessible melodic sort which might be preferred by normal "music lovers".  Therein lies its vulnerability, its ultimate doom... as the audience relaxes and drifts along with the music, Unthinkable Horror can happen... even at a concert-hall NEAR YOU.

I had gleefully noticed that Tárrega's little telephonic ditty roughly compatible with the conventional ii-V-I  harmonic cadence formula:
That's why Quartetus Interruptus features innocent short phrases which frequently incorporate such ii-V-I sequences (circling through a variety of keys). This gave me the opportunity to surgically implant or rather, superimpose the Nokia tune over a number of my own phrases.
m
Quartetus Interruptus could actually work viably just as a trio of oboe, clarinet and bassoon. In terms of conventional part-writing, it doesn't really need to be a quartet. BUT (un-beknown to the poor innocent audience) the spare fourth performer is a desperate Terrorist clutching a mobile phone which has been cleverly modified to appear like another clarinet, silently waiting to ambush the ensemble when s/he detects a suitable.moment. The devastating Nokia tune can then be cruelly detonated to inflict maximum casualties. The unfortunate fact that the audience is usually seated closer to the mobile phone than to the musicians means that the penetrating Nokia ringtone can sound relatively louder than the music itself. With this in mind, it would be okay/fun/alarming for the second clarinet to be placed next to, or for novelty's sake, even among, the audience ;-)
m
Surely this telephonic intrusion comprises nothing less than Musical Terrorism on a mind-numbingly pervasive international scale! The Mobile has mutated into Phonezilla, a deadly "Weapon of Muse Distraction" ...and Dubm Dubya never even recognized it for the threat it is (coz he's probably never been to a concert :-) Surely everyone else on the planet has by now been the helpless victim of a laser-guided Nokia sound-bomb.
m 
This next photo represents how I feel when seated in a concert in the brutal aftermath of such a bunker-busting attack, musically stunned, limping through the decimated remains of the beautiful musical landscape-that-was... 

  Listen out for the renegade bassoonist who, in a moment of weakness? insanity? corruption? .briefly becomes a willing accomplice to the Nokia suicide bomber, before regaining his senses. The bassoon, always the buffoon of the orchestra, of course gets the Nokia tune slightly "wrong". At one point, the music is hijacked and fooled into changing key by a rudely insistent mobile. Thus, the entire piece is gradually colonized by this lightweight jingle. Prepare Ye Thine Ears for a few brief moments of utter telephonic chaos when all the mobiles in the audience begin ringing together - the music goes completely "out of focus" during a poly-rhythmic rhythmic canon. It sounds chaotic ...but, ironically it is arguably the most structured passage of the entire piece (and - perversely - it's the bit I like best, of course... :-)
m
Also beware the very end - there's an unexpected but subtle visitation by the Nokia startup tune, then an unexpected Nokia grenade hurled by a disaffected concert patron, followed by the musical equivalent of a staredown: the loudest silence you'll ever hear. Eventually though, Moral Fortitude triumphs...
m

---

Speaking of Moral Fortitude, I suggest that before anyone is permitted to enter a concert venue, they should be frisked or x-rayed and any mobiles temporarily impounded. Offenders whose phone interrupts the concert should be required to stand onstage for the remainder of the performance, then be frog-marched off by the Music Police to a sound-proof padded cell and forced to listen to my "Nokia Quartet" looped 12 hours (a.k.a. "music-boarding"). As a newly-converted Music Jihadist, I'm considering applying to perform with this ensemble on YouTube.
m
Although Quartetus Interruptus is clearly a "novelty piece", I think it still hangs together in its own right in a fairly integrated way. As George Bernard Shaw once quipped, this music is better than it sounds. Your beloved Nokia tune appears right at the outset although you might not immediately recognize it embedded in quartal/secondal harmony. Its rhythm is distorted and the normal pattern of accents displaced, creating the world's first Waltz in 4 beats to the bar. Plus there are also a couple of extra passing notes snuk in to throw you off the scent... marked with x 

m
Tarrega's Granvals is a waltz, so (naturally :-) I wrote my own piece in duple time in order to generate rhythmic conflict-of-interest: the triplets of the Nokia tune are pitted against the twos and fours of mine. Likewise, the Nokia ring tone is quite disjunct (the notes mostly leap around by wide intervals), therefore I made my piece smooth and melodically conjunct. That makes the jagged mountain peaks of the Nokia ringtone leap out dramatically against the languidly rolling countryside of my own music. Lastly, the piece also addresses one of my favourite quests, a seamless interface between Tertian and Quartal harmonic systems (particularly in the Intro and Outro).

---

ADVERTISEMENT:
Out of respect for the Muses and sensitive concert-goers' ears, I'm thinking of re-marketing various vintage "less-than-mobile" phones in order to discourage saboteurs from sneaking them into concerts:

Retro mobile phones

Waltzing Mad Hilda (for two pianos)

 



ABANDON YE FORTHWITH your futile quest to find the ultimate encore piece for your next piano duet concert - you've just found it! Especially if you happen to be piano duetists of an excessively Australian persuasion.
m
Waltzing Mad Hilda comprises no more than a single Verse & Chorus of Australia's real national anthem, yet showcases a wide range of musical styles. In fact, it is a veritable buffet of genres, a light-hearted international frolic packed into a mere 1 minute 30 seconds. From moment to moment you get snatches of Jazz, Bach, Ragtime, Chopin, Blues, or Viennese Waltz etc.  Expect anything.

Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button:
 

Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/waltzing-mad-hilda
mm
If you wish, you may read the pdf score here.
This link will open in its own window so you can follow the score while listening to the music. Both the score and mp3 recording are free and downloadable.

The melody line functions as a simple 'wandering' Cantus Firmus threaded through most of the piece which, once identified by the performers, can be deliberately made a little more prominent if desired. To this end, melody notes are often placed in prominent positions rhythmically (eg, bars 18-19 have them placed as high notes on the beat, in spite of the flurry of semi-quavers). The Introduction (bars 1 & 2) and the Outroduction (bars 28-31) are freely composed.
mm
Bah. This cryptic pic of a sheep was put here to whet the curiosity of those who are not familiar with the story behind Waltzing Matilda. 
 Who the bloody hell was Banjo Gore-Paterson?
And what the f*** is a jumbuck anyway?

And don't forget to place a bottle of beer and a pair of shearing clippers on the piano before launching (lurching?) into your performance.

Harpology 101 A reckless adventure into composing for the Harp

Wagner reckoned he wrote "music of the future", and performers insisted that Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was "unplayable". Nowadays, these pieces are standard repertoire. Maybe that will also be the case with my new piece for harp.

Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...

Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/harpology-101
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (in pdf format) here .
This link will open in its own window so you can scroll through while listening to the music.  Both the score and the recording are free and downloadable.
mm

I'm a self-confessed novice at the hazardous task of writing for the concert/pedal harp (hence the title of the piece!), and to an experienced harpist that will probably become obvious. By way of parallel, as an [ex-] performer on the classical guitar, I can confirm the immense difficulties for the non-performer of writing idiomatically.

m

In fact, I would truly appreciate any constructive feedback from bona-fide harp-ophonists. I anticipate that you'll demand "Where are the #@! pedal indications?" or "Can you please edit out those impossible chromatic runs" , or "Go find a harp therapist!", etc, and I shall have to hang my head in guilt. But the notes that I wrote are the notes that my Ears wanted: they overruled my Head. If, as a consequence, this music only ever gets heard via my computer-synthesized rendition, then so-be-it, I suppose. I could get lucky - someone might invent a fully chromatic harp with automatic transmission (plus air-con?). But by 1890, that had been tried already (a double harp, but minus the air-con). And can you imagine how awkward it might be to negotiate the forest of strings in this triple harp. Today, the harp repertoire still has an (undeserved) reputation of being a tad trite and a little stale: I'd like to think that Harpology 101 could be seen as a nudge in a slightly more adventurous (if challenging) direction. That's my excuse...
m
The music is in palindromic form with the slow central Cantabile section in pride of place at the mid-point or axis. Harmony is predominantly quartal/quintal. Melodic style in the early and later sections is quite giddyingly disjunct, often leaping around in fourths. In the central slow section, however, the intervals iron out into a more conventional linear style which, by the sudden contrast, sounds relatively 'romantic'.

Francis Poulenc Goes To Osaka (for flute and 2 guitars)

To the very best of my knowledge, Mr Francis Poulenc never actually went to Osaka ...however, I wrote some music in case someone ever discovers that he did.

Connect your device to a decent sound source or enclosed headphones, and click on the orange PLAY button:
mm


Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/francis-poulenc-goes-to-osaka
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (in pdf format) here.
This will open in its own window so you can scroll through while listening. Both the score and the mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
mm
My music was inspired by Poulenc's sublime "Sonata for Flute and Piano". It still transports me after all these years. Hey dude, re-spect, hi-fives, [etc]. A master of the augmented triad.
mm
Poulenc was a member of "Les Six", a radical group of young revolutionary "Up-the-Establishment" French composers loosely centered around "bad boy" Erik Satie in Paris early in the 20th century. Gee wiz, I was born too late - they ought to have been "Les Sept". Mon dieu! Zut alors! [etc]
mm
Poulenc's Sonata, however, is not to be found in my trio Francis Poulenc Goes To Osaka, but its impact can surely be sensed in the flippant playfulness, free contrapuntal lyricism, and evolving interaction and exchange between parts. The flexibility of the hemiola facilitates the Japanese cultural penchant for 'separateness': the flavour of each element, as in a Japanese meal, can only be savoured fully when tasted individually. Likewise, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu indulges in contrasts - he likens his compositional process to that of "placing objects in a garden" in order to showcase each one to best advantage.
mm
Strong elements of quartal harmony in my piece do not deny Poulenc's unapologetic sense of tonal centricity and formal conventions: this music is anchored firmly around the note C from start to finish, and adopts traditional ternary form.
mm
So, why didn't I just use a single guitar? Because with two guitars it is possible to create extremely dense, close secondal or quartal harmonies that are mostly impractical on a single guitar - without resorting to the clever idiosyncratic (but harmonically restricted) open-string trickery of which Heitor Villa-Lobos was typically so fond.
mm
And why Japan in particular, I hear you ask? As part of the Creative Process, I often like to put irreconcilable opposites together into a conceptual mixing bowl, then stand back and watch what happens. The music of Poulenc is about as far from Japanese music as you can imagine, so - ideal. Impossible is Nothing. Hey, it works OK for me. But admittedly, for a long time I had to confront the blank score marked boldly with "flute-guitar-guitar". LITTLE ME vs BIG SCARY BLANK MANUSCRIPT PAGE. We defiantly stare each other down like wrestlers before a match.
mm
Finally, here's a photo of some typical 1920s Parisian concert-goers reacting critically to Poulenc's music...

 "Imbecile!! Vous devriez mieux continuer le style de Beethoven, alors!"

Reconciliation: music dedicated to peace in the Middle East

Israelis spray burning phosphorus onto civilians in Gaza, 2009.

Can we even begin to imagine the horror?
mm

This music is dedicated to peace in the Middle East. Two clashing keys are eventually reconciled and, in the process, are fused together and completely transformed. These musical transformations are a metaphor for the huge social changes and compromises which will certainly be necessary for any political or social reconciliation.
mm
Reconciliation 
for string chamber orchestra or string sextet
(v, v, v, vla, vc, db; 6 min 03sec) 



Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...

Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/reconciliation
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (in pdf format) here
This link will open in a new window so you can follow the score while listening. 
Both the score and mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
mm

NOTES:

(For a quick overview, read the red bits only)

mm
00min:00sec The slow Introduction is symbolic of thousands of years of co-existence between Palestinian and Israeli peoples. However, embedded in this atmospheric passage is a brooding, unsettled sense of yearning, hinting of unresolved issues.

Technical notes: Introduction, bars 1- 15. The brooding unsettled mood at the opening is generated by a D-augmented triad (D, F#, A#) over a D pedal (the music is at least 'D-centric' if not in pure D-major), extended over unexpectedly long stretches of time (bars 1-3 and 8-10). At the start, the listener might normally have expected the key of D-major, but here the chord is disturbingly "corrupted" by the A# (notated here, for convenience, as Bb). An augmented triad is normally quite unstable and tends to resolve promptly to another chord, like iron filings drawn inexorably to a magnet. Here, however, at the very opening, its agony is prolonged for 3 full beats before momentarily changing to an A minor triad on the fourth beat. Bar 2 resumes the augmented triad, relentlessly sustaining the tension well into bar 3. This effectively turns conventional musical syntax on its head, making stable the chord which is usually unstable. By corollary, the normally stable A minor chord is treated as if it were a unstable passing dissonance. This inherent instability of augmented triads saturates a great deal of the Introduction: by way of example, see the bass (bars 6-7) and the viola (bar 7). In addition, the melodic outline of the future main theme is previewed in bars 1-3 and 8-10. Here the first violin meanders around the descending cells of F# E D (suggestive of D-major) and C Bb A (suggestive of F-major). This theme will feature in the next section "Robusto".

mm
00min:27sec A brief 'roll of thunder', swelling in the remote key of F-major (bars 6 and 13), followed by few brief moments of disturbingly jagged, lightning-like melody in the viola (bar 7) represent occasional social discord. You are at liberty here, Dear Listener, to visualize whichever Qu'ranic/Torahnic events you will. This Introduction, musically speaking, is a chilling premonition, a compressed exposé, of the two conflicting keys which are to become, in musical metaphor, the antagonists in the Muddle East.

Technical notes: The long-anticipated D-major triad does finally appear - but only momentarily - by the middle of bar 5, before being swept aside by the surging crescendo in F-major (bar 6). These two key centres are to represent Israel and Palestine. Sharing only the common note of A (first violin, bars 5-6), they exert a colourful chromatic-mediant relationship to each other. It is this relationship which is exploited (twice for emphasis) in the Introduction. It is perhaps fitting that the letter A should represent the common element between Israel and Palestine if you consider that the words "Allah" and "Adonai" both begin with "A": the two countries do worship the same God, after all.

mm
01min:32sec "Robusto" - the main theme begins.
 This innocent 6-note falling melodic motif contains all the musical seeds of the coming cataclysmic descent into conflict in the Middle East. Its melody can musically accommodate TWO keys (D-major and F-major, representing Israel and Palestine). All continues reasonably harmoniously, but at...

Technical notes: "Robusto": (bar 15, Rehearsal A)
The main theme (F#, E, D, C, Bb, A), as in the Introduction, juxtaposes the two keys D-major and F-major, thrusting them together even within the opening bar. The notes F#, E, and D constitute a segment of the D-major scale, and the notes C, Bb, and A suggest the scale of F-major. There are some repetitions of the theme, with embellishments, which serve strategically to to impress it on the listener's memory, given that it will re-appear, transformed, throughout the rest of the piece. The underlying harmony in each bar is a repeated alternation of two beats on D followed by two beats on F, ie, constant juxtaposition of the antagonist keys not unlike an ostinato.

mm
02min:08sec. ...things begin slowly to unravel and get slightly disjointed... until an unexpected dramatic pause…

Technical notes: After bar 20, however, the two keys begin to blur and overlap as the Fnaturals in the lower voices begin colliding violently with the Fsharps, as if someone were deliberately smudging the entire score. Appropriately, there are instances of "false relations", which, according to the conventional canon of music "laws", are the equivalent of an atrocity. In addition to this, the phrases become rhythmically more disjointed, harmonically more blurred and confused. These harmonic and rhythmic distortions and collisions symbolize the ongoing Palesine-Israel conflict.

mm
02min:22sec After the pause comes a brief allusion to "Tristan und Isolde" by Richard Wagner, the notorious 19th century anti-Zionist. Passions immediately inflame, with volleys of dissonant chords rising like tracer fire, and the two clashing keys of D and F angrily lock horns.

Technical notes: "Langsam" (Rehearsal B, end of bar 22).
At Figure B, the fragment of the Tristan theme (laced with even more chromaticism than the original) surges up to a spicy clash between F and F# at bar 25. Volleys of augmented chords rise like tracer fire during bars 25 and 26, cadencing on further F-F# explosions at the beginnings of bars 27 and 28. Just like the Middle-East conflict, there is no consistent logic to the sequencing of these chords. Prominent are F-augmented and F#-augmented, followed by some which spiral through the circle of fifths towards a chord of D-major/minor at bar 27. The chord at the start of bar 28 has lost any immediately recognisable tonal basis - it comprises mainly the notes of F and F#, the conflictual nub of the matter.

mm
03min:05sec Next, coming out of the blue like the proverbial white-hatted "posse" in a B-grade Western movie, a fragment of the melody "The Star-Spangled Banana" boldly steps into the musical fray. This rising ditty, of course, alludes to a familiar 20th century fundamentalist hamburger-consuming pro-Zionist superpower. Ironically, this intrusion seems to whip up even more angst than ever before. Under this needling provocation, the Middle East conflict quickly escalates into a searing musical conflagration in the high register of the violins. There is a series of violent flashpoints at which you might interpret screams of agony during Israel’s Six-day War in 1967, and Palestinian citizens deliberately crushed to death by Israeli bulldozers in the Jenin refugee camp, not to mention the calculated slaughter of more than 1300 Gazans in 2009.

Technical notes: "The Star-Spangled Banner" (Rehearsal C, bar 29)
The rising triad of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is doubled by basses and celli in octaves in imitation of brass-band voicings. (Incidentally, the word "Langsam" was Herr Wagner's choice, not mine). The level of dissonance between the instruments' parts increases after this (bars 29, 30), and their degree of musical rationality and accountability decreases. Fully-fledged war breaks out at bar 31 ("Appassionato molto") with head-on confrontation between Fsharps and Fnaturals.

...but Peace Talks continue, and small compromises slowly begin to happen. The source of cultural clash (represented in this music by the note F) is gradually eliminated, resulting in a building sense of relief and relaxation. The instruments begin to cascade slowly downwards, concluding in a curiously satisfying and peaceful cadence... 

Technical notes: The Fsharps (from bar 33; ironically a prominent note at the opening of Wagner's Tristan theme) begin to subdue and eliminate the Fnaturals during an extended descending passage. A tentative cadence at bar 37 arrives at Skryabin’s so-called Mystic Chord, which, both by being placed as the lowest pitch and by its louder dynamic, arbitrarily asserts the centricity of the note C over both D and F. Like tonal chords, this chord, with its strong quartal elements, is capable of being inverted to create subtle shades of harmonic colour.

mm
03min:56sec (Rehearsal C, bar 37) But now, lo and behold! This is an utterly new species of chord, the long-awaited moment of reconciliation between the two competing keys - they have been fused into a new entity altogether. In fact, from this point on, nothing in the music (or the Middle East, for that matter) can ever be the same as before. This unfamiliar New Chord is neither D-major nor F-major, but a negotiated composite of the two. It is a complete transformation of Tradition, both in music and social metaphor. The creation of this New Chord constitutes the pivotal moment in this entire piece. (Perhaps at this point I ought to coin the term "Peace Acchord"). This time, however, it is built on the foundation note of C, not D or F as before.
The sound quality of this New Chord may not be fully to the taste of either Palestine or Israel, but nevertheless it is the essential compromise with which they must learn to live. Could this mysterious New Chord metaphorically represent some Cosmic Compromise-maker, a canny Concord-broker? United Nations delegates sitting at The Round Table in the glassy "Tower of Babble" in New Camelot, perhaps? Can the peace last? Well, as the proverb goes, a Camel is a Horse designed by a Committee...

mm
04min:10sec "Ballo Dolente" = "Sad Dance" (Rehearsal D, bar 39). Now that peace is achieved, there is a dance of celebration - but it is a lugubrious and tired dance, soured by traumatic bloodied memories. Musically, the dance showcases the ethereal, strangely beautiful qualities of the New Chord, the ‘bringer of peace", in a number of varieties not unlike typical chord changes in a slow Blues. (I visualize these as akin to the ever-mutating qualities of dappled late-afternoon sunlight filtering through forest foliage). Their orderly movement is determined by traditional cadence formulae dictated from the deep by the domineering double basses, like a Council of Wise Elders, a metaphor for the authority of Musical Tradition.

Technical notes: Isolated from the other instruments, the bass-line during ‘Ballo Dolente’ would make perfect tonal sense to musicians from Mozart to Zappa to Leadbelly. Soaring over this rock-solid conventional bass-line are various transpositions of the Mystic Chord, conjuring up a kaleidoscopic palette of subtly different harmonic colours (given that there are always six of the possible twelve tones being heard at any one moment). This harmonic 'disconnect' between upper and lower parts makes for disturbingly disoriented experience for the listener* - a neat metaphor, perhaps, for the eternally polarized misunderstandings between governments and citizens.
 *To further illuminate the point about a tonal bass-line controlling a quartal environment, have a look /listen to my piece Chord Soup, a miniature I wrote as a pre-study to Reconciliation. Its time-scale is so compressed (less than a minute) that it may assist you to hear what I'm bonging on about here. Its structure is a simple I-V-I arch, so send your ears down to the double-bass).

 mm
05min:00sec CONCLUSION
As the dance draws to a close, worrying snatches from the Introduction are heard again, reminding us that it is all too easy to slip back into old ingrained thought habits and prejudices, or to permit extremist elements to re-ignite hatreds of the past. From this point on, however, the Musical East lives happily ever after, beginning with a series of three cadences at...
mm
05min:11sec ...in which the authority of the new musico-social language is re-affirmed, allowing the music to fade comfortingly into the future. In an effort to be democratically inclusive, the note F is offered a place. Although on first impression the texture of this final chord sounds vaguely similar to the very opening chord of the piece, it is actually quite different, utterly transformed by the reconciliation process. Thus the piece does NOT end as it begins: instead of the schematic paradigm 'ABA' so beloved of the 19th century European Enlightenment, this music adopts a more dynamic and forward-looking 'ABC' format.

Technical notes: There are unnerving flashbacks to 'augmented fifth' chords - like those heard back at the very opening. This constitutes a worrying re-emergence of the old musical language, a recidivist step in terms of the reconciliation process. There is even an ever-so-brief allusion to the rising minor 6th motif of Wagner's theme again, as well as the ‘thunder in F major’ (bar 50).

---

General note on the form of Reconciliation
The formal strategy underlying Reconciliation is not entirely alien to the musical reconciliation at the heart of the musical architecture of 18th-century Sonata Form. However, whereas the old Sonata Form required one key to completely vanquish the other to impose a "winner", my music simply merges both keys into democratic compromise and equality of status. I have attempted to broker a reconciliation between the sound-worlds of Tertian and Quartal harmony: in fact you may have noticed that the note of F, earlier so vilified and exiled during the musical ‘Peace Process”, has been quietly re-incorporated in the final cadences (from bar 47). Arbitrary exclusion of any note, any voice, would have represented a cultural loss to the entire community ...we all need to move beyond adherence to destructive social hierarchies, illogical land borders unrelated to cultural borders, or self-centered nationalisms. And historically, it is often the Artist who has volunteered to be the sensitive barometer, the mine canary, of social justice and change.
mm
The genesis of the music
At the musical heart of the portrait - and the very genesis of the the music - is the exquisite agony of the augmented triad. When I was very young I heard Schuman's sublime piano piece Traumeri, and was totally overwhelmed by its emotions: back then I had no idea, of course, that it was Schuman's sublime use of compositional devices such as augmented triads, double-diminished sevenths, dominant sevents with flatted ninths etc, that was the musical cause of the uncontrollable lump in my young throat.
mm
Years later, as a music student, it all became clear and "explainable" of course, even if in coldly rational prosaic terms. I duly absorbed the "Rules", handed to me on (well-tempered) Musical Tablets directly from Moses and Bach, such as "Thou Shalt Resolve Augmented Triads"... (and even more specifically, how they should be resolved!) Academe has such a lot to answer for in such Attempted Codification of the Uncodifiable - the Muses should be outraged at the insensitive "one-size-fits-all" authoritarianism. But all the same, I consciously determined never to lose those tingling sensations of musical magic I had felt as an untutored but attentive Young Listener.
mm
Now in later life, I have tried to re-conjure that, to weave all of the old magic deep into the fabric of Reconciliation and hopefully to carry it a step further, to intensify it, gently prod and challenge. Why must an augmented triad resolve into some other chord if you enjoy the sound of it 'per se'? For an even more thorough answer, I'm going off now into the Hereafter to consult with my friend Claude Debussy...
mm

Afterthoughts...

 I would like to have this music performed at any formal or informal send-off of my mortal coil, pre- or post-cremation ...preferably on something of better quality than a boom-box, with any luck. Reconciliation can be understood not only as a parable of the Middle-East, but also as a personal metaphor for my life. In fact, the piece began its existence as an autobiographical endeavour tracing the long road of recovery from sexual abuse. Later, I switched to the Middle-East dedication because I felt so strongly about the heartless bombardment of Gaza. So it is perhaps appropriate that an autobiographical musical portrait should accompany my Exit: the shape of the music reflects phases and transformations during my life, and those who are close to me may be able to understand what I mean when I say "personal metamorphosis".

Please ask those present to resist the senseless ritual urge to clap (clapping is such a noisy shattering atrocity after the otherworldly experience of focusing attentively to Music). Instead, simply allow a period of silent reflection before fading the lights back up. Fade the lights in the room, then allow some silence to elapse before beginning to play the music. Ditto, permit some silence after the music fades. Silences can be the element of a performance which have the capacity to speak the loudest. Please don't clap.

Chord Soup: a study in quartal harmony based on Skriabin's "Mystic Chord"

Chord Soup is a miniature piece for string sextet or string chamber orchestra (v,v,v,vla,vc,db). It was only ever planned as a short pre-study to my larger piece, Reconciliation. I had therefore never envisaged Chord Soup for public consumption, but had always harboured a secret soft-spot for it. Many months later, I went back and stirred it up a little... 

 Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...
mm


Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/chord-soup
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (as a pdf file) here.
This link will open in a new window so you can follow the score while listening.  Both the score and the mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
mm

Back when I first sketched Chord Soup, I was experimenting with its key ingredient, Skriabin’s ‘Mystic Chord’, excitedly tasting its characteristic flavours:

Read more about this chord at wikipedia.

mm

This chord is ‘non-functional’ in a conventional harmonic sense because it is Quartal, ie., it uses chords stacked in fourths instead of thirds. It is not unlike a mini-"skyscraper" chord, a thick, opaque chunk of sound. Presented in this manner, like a pinned insect specimen under glass, it looks (and sounds) like an inert and immovable object. After all, it uses up a full six of the twelve possible notes, whereas a "normal" chord requires only 3 or 4, or possibly 5 when 'extended' (eg, G, G7, or G9).

mm

Crucially, the Mystic Chord lacks a perfect fifth above its root (in this case there is no D above the G). This denies the chord a clear tonal axis, thus is a big factor in the ambiguity I so enjoy. But it is a moot point as to whether there is an identifiable "root" note at all ...ah, but I digress.

mm

Just like traditional tertian chords, the Mystic Chord (a.k.a. the "Prometheus Chord") can be arrayed in various dispositions, plus be inverted as well. Given that there are 6 notes available instead of the usual 3 or 4, simple arithmetic suggests that the number of possible voicings and inversions offers the composer a considerably larger number of options and (therefore) a much wider spectrum of harmonic colours and degrees of tension.

Herewith a few examples, from which one can extrapolate:
The quartal harmony born of Skryabin's chord therefore admits not only of fourths but a wide variety of intervals - even (gasp!) thirds and fifths. However, it lends itself most readily to a harmonic language favouring seconds, fourths, sevenths and ninths, thereby casting doubt on the assumed distinction between 'consonance' and 'dissonance' so smugly (and arbitrarily) asserted by conventional chord structures like C, G7, f#m, etc.
mm
Like tertian chords, Skryiabin's Mystic Chord can also be transposed through all 11 of the other semitones, eg., here I've transposed up it by a perfect fifth:
Given the assumption that "bass notes = root notes", Chord Soup can be reduced (in terms of Shenkerian Analysis) to the very simplest chord progression I - V - I, the simplest of tonic prolongations, plus a short formulaic coda (complete with traditional octave leaps circling in on the tonic at the end of bar 13):
This is, in effect, forcing Quartal Harmony (innately non-functional materials) into the straightjacket of functional traditional tonal conventions. It's rather like trying to mix oil into water: well, as they say, Impossible is Nothing. However, the ear can quickly reconcile the conflict precisely because the formal context is so familiar and unambiguous. It is also on an extremely compressed time-scale (only 15 bars or 56" long), thereby demanding precious little of the listener's musical memory. In short, the dilemma exists primarily on paper and in the Theorist's mind, not so much in the ear of the Listener.
mm
In fact, even the unsuspecting listener soon hears and accepts the quartal chord on G functioning in the role of Tonic, and the quartal chord on D functioning as in the role of Dominant. The usual principles of perceived consonance and dissonance apply just as much here as they do in Mozart or Mahler - the quartal chord on D is heard as "the dominant" precisely because it has been placed in a position conventionally heard as relatively unstable. It's the "B" in the old "ABA" paradigm.

The "arch form" of the first violin's melody also facilitates this perception of Tonic-Dominant polarity. The violin melody surges up in waves to the high point at bar 5, and so does the bass, at which time the harmony changes to chord V. From that point it reverses direction and begins falling in similar waves until the return to chord I at bar 9. Likewise, the bass rises and falls to assist the ear to articulate these pivotal structural moments. The violin and the bass are therefore not just pretty faces, but actively serve to highlight the harmonic architecture of the entire piece.

mm

And just like all "normal" tonal I - V progressions from Machaut to Madonna, there is even a "common note". In fact, the composer exploiting the intriguing resources of Skryabine's Mystic Chord happily discovers the luxury of a choice between two common notes (in this piece, the notes E and B). Listen, for instance, to the note E in the first violin during bars 4 and 5 as the harmony underneath changes from I to V.

There Came A Glance From Igor (Woodwind Trio)

 

I wrote There Came A Glance From Igor (wind trio: flute, oboe, bassoon) mainly as a tribute to Stravinsky, who helped me (along with Charles Ives and Sebastian Bach) to stretch my youthful ears.
mm
Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button...


mm
Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/there-came-a-glance-from-igor
mm
If you wish, you can read the score (as a pdf file) here. This link will open in a new window so you can scroll thru the score as the music plays. Both the score and the mp3 recording are free and downloadable.
mm
Ralph Vaughn-Williams provided the wonderful melody ("Linden Lea") which forms the backbone of the Trio, but it is to Stravinsky that I owe most debt. Like Stravinsky, I enjoy woodwinds: their individual "enameled" timbres ensure linear clarity in a self- consciously polyphonic texture, and therefore militate against the sometimes cloyingly sentimental harmonic blend of strings so tiresomely favoured by 19th century Romantics. Stravinsky ("Counterpoint is my natural home") also loved the music of Bach: his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto was a clear neo-Baroque tribute to the Brandenburg Concerti. My trio (a set of variations with finale) therefore opens in a distinctly Bachian "common practice" contrapuntal style. The attentive listener, however, will soon notice occasional and increasing intrusions of quartal and secondal sonorities. It is these which constitute the "glances from Igor" implied by the title.
mm
Harmonies such as these (built on fourths, seconds, sevenths and ninths) do not automatically suggest the same tonal functions as traditional tertian (triadic) harmony, so can sound more "static". Blending and reconciling these two musical languages was the underlying aim of my piece. Vaughn-Williams' melody, employed as a "wandering" Cantus Firmus, imparts familiar musical architecture, comforting cadence formulae, and clearly implied syntax offered by its regular phrase structure. These aspects are the music's "bones", which are then fleshed out by the spectrum of quartal harmonies. As the music progresses, the subtle shadings of quartal colours begin to reconcile with conventional elements.
mm
The finale departs from the safety of the melody line by using only its opening motif in a quasi-fugal texture: thank you Herr Bach. But the finale is tri-tonal: thank you Mr Ives. And thank you, Dear Reader, for taking the time to read me blog.

FOUR BRITISH FOLKSONG SETTINGS (for SATB)

 
 Although these are 'stand-alone' songs, all four of them are on the following recording. Together, they make up about a 10-minute concert item, but performers may choose fewer, or re-order the sequence. The songs, in the recorded order, are
    1. The Oak and the Ash
    2. Rosebud in June 
    3. Bonny at Morn
    4. Searching for Lambs

Connect your device to a decent sound system or enclosed headphones, and click the orange PLAY button:

Alternatively, you could listen to the music at its URL:
http://soundcloud.com/peter-gore-symes/four-british-folksongs
mm
If you wish you can follow all the scores here in a new window as the music plays.
The score and the mp3 recording are free and downloadable. Ensembles are free to perform this music with no risk of copyright infringement - just acknowledge me in announcements or program notes as the composer. The music was composed in 2009 and revised in 2011.

mm

These computer-synthesized mp3 recordings are by no means intended as the "authorized version" in terms of performance. They are intended merely as a private introduction for each performer prior to the start of rehearsals, therefore should never be broadcast. Indeed, I necessarily had to compromise artistically between the need for rigid adherence to the beat and the more interpretative and delightfully flexible reality of flesh-and-blood performers.
mm
The lyrics are traditional. Computer music notation programs such as Sibelius (as far as I am aware) cannot yet actually pronounce words, thereby denying these songs their pivotal aspect, that of "Story-telling". The computerized “vocalize” quality on the recordings is necessarily a bland compromise when compared with real voices singing real words. I also encourage performers to approach these arrangements with a flexible and relaxed attitude to phrasing, much like folk-singers do - it is appropriate with this music that enjoyment, passion, and a cheeky sense of humour overcome the stultifying strictures of "correct" academic musical protocol.
mm
It may feel intuitive, for instance, to accelerate a little during a rising passage where the lyrics are leading towards some crucial word. A well-placed silence can be magic, akin to a painter’s dramatic use of white. Experiment with holding pauses just that dangerous bit longer than written, and watch what happens. Take time to breathe between phrases. Also, where lyrics suggest social/comic interaction between characters, don't feel inhibited to enliven and entertain by indulging in occasional "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" stage histrionics. It is true, though, that understatement is both more humorous and dignified. And so much more, yes, "British", old chum.
mm
Performers will need a proficient intervallic sense for well-intoned performance of the harmony. Although the melody is always clearly present in one voice or another, the surrounding voices clothe it in a constantly mutating blend of Tertian, Quartal/Secundal sonorities. Resist the temptation to employ a rehearsal pianist - purer intonation as the result of listening to each other will generate a sonority sweeter than the piano’s equal temperament. Ironically, these recorded versions, even though nominally ‘vocal’ sounds, are actually equally-tempered due to the setup of the Sibelius program. In that sense, live singers have the opportunity to adjust sizes of intervals and thus produce a version harmonically even ‘sweeter’ than the recordings. To this end, I suggest some rehearsal run-thrus at molto adagissimo. Take care to minimise if not entirely eliminate vibrato... in the interests of accurately honed  temperament.
mm
Real folksingers often delight in ad-lib embellishment of a melody. I have written out some such ornaments, but encourage whichever singer has the melody from moment to moment to enjoy venturing into a few (tasteful) ones of their own. If you have fun, the audience will too.
m