Landscape of Diffracted Colours
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YouTube Video (Left)
Please view the video for the first 2:30 to watch part of the performance and discussion from the 2008 Gaudeamus Music Week, performed by Insomnio with Ulrich Pöhl conducting. Soundcloud excerpt (Right) |
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Programme Note
Landscape of Diffracted Colours was written in 2005 and is scored for mixed ensemble and pre-recorded electronics. It was first performed at the 2007 Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, New Zealand and was awarded second Prize the Asian Composers League Young Composers Award at the same event. The work's title refers to the many different colours found in the Australian landscape and how the light of these colours can be bent and diffracted. Some of this imagery includes shimmering, where light is bent by Australia's extreme heat and the rich and dark colours of sandstone, which is visible because of reflection and diffraction from elements of its composition.
The work's harmonic material is based on the harmonic series of four fundamentals. The ensemble and electronics work together to synthesise various tone colours and transform them over time. There is also interplay between the two parts where the colouristic resonance of the ensemble is morphed into a different colour by the electronic part.
Divided into three sections, Landscape of Diffracted Colours' first section is very intense and contrasts very dense, raw and almost primal sounding material with a light and very open sounding texture. Each fundamental is used separately and is subject to some kind of timbre transformation such as distortion etc. This changes towards the end of the first section as some fundamentals and textures are used simultaneously. The second section is calmer and very sostenuto with a sense of more metric freedom than the stricter first section. Lyrical material in the piano and winds appears as a contrast to the heavier first section. After a solo for the electronic part, the work returns to the material of the first section, but with further development. The textures and fundamentals progressively overlap more and more until the climax of the work, after which the work's colours gradually fade away.
Instrumentation: Fl (doubling Picc), Ob, Cl (doubling bass), 1 Perc, Pno, Vln, Vla, Vc & pre-recorded electronics (stereo CD or 5.1 surround DVD)
Performances of this work
15 Dec 2010: Performed by Students of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Featuring Bart Bouckaert.
26 Sep 2008: ISCM World Music Days, National Philharmonic Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania. Featuring Peter Eötvös, Ensemble Modern.
1 Sep 2008: Internationale Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2008, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, the Netherlands. Featuring Ulrich Pöhl, Insomnio Ensemble.
2 Apr 2008: Alte Oper, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Featuring Peter Eötvös, Ensemble Modern.
15 Feb 2007: Asia-Pacific Festival, 'Young Turks', St Andrews on The Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. Featuring Stroma Ensemble.
Programme Note
Landscape of Diffracted Colours was written in 2005 and is scored for mixed ensemble and pre-recorded electronics. It was first performed at the 2007 Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, New Zealand and was awarded second Prize the Asian Composers League Young Composers Award at the same event. The work's title refers to the many different colours found in the Australian landscape and how the light of these colours can be bent and diffracted. Some of this imagery includes shimmering, where light is bent by Australia's extreme heat and the rich and dark colours of sandstone, which is visible because of reflection and diffraction from elements of its composition.
The work's harmonic material is based on the harmonic series of four fundamentals. The ensemble and electronics work together to synthesise various tone colours and transform them over time. There is also interplay between the two parts where the colouristic resonance of the ensemble is morphed into a different colour by the electronic part.
Divided into three sections, Landscape of Diffracted Colours' first section is very intense and contrasts very dense, raw and almost primal sounding material with a light and very open sounding texture. Each fundamental is used separately and is subject to some kind of timbre transformation such as distortion etc. This changes towards the end of the first section as some fundamentals and textures are used simultaneously. The second section is calmer and very sostenuto with a sense of more metric freedom than the stricter first section. Lyrical material in the piano and winds appears as a contrast to the heavier first section. After a solo for the electronic part, the work returns to the material of the first section, but with further development. The textures and fundamentals progressively overlap more and more until the climax of the work, after which the work's colours gradually fade away.
Instrumentation: Fl (doubling Picc), Ob, Cl (doubling bass), 1 Perc, Pno, Vln, Vla, Vc & pre-recorded electronics (stereo CD or 5.1 surround DVD)
Performances of this work
15 Dec 2010: Performed by Students of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Featuring Bart Bouckaert.
26 Sep 2008: ISCM World Music Days, National Philharmonic Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania. Featuring Peter Eötvös, Ensemble Modern.
1 Sep 2008: Internationale Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2008, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, the Netherlands. Featuring Ulrich Pöhl, Insomnio Ensemble.
2 Apr 2008: Alte Oper, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Featuring Peter Eötvös, Ensemble Modern.
15 Feb 2007: Asia-Pacific Festival, 'Young Turks', St Andrews on The Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. Featuring Stroma Ensemble.