Seascape, With Frieze Of Girls

ENS.2004.2 | 14′
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin

Score

Seascape, With Frieze Of Girls


The title is from Proust, À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. This is a music of waves, the patterns made by dappling water. It’s one of my most impersonal pieces, and thus actually quite personal—a work like this, where every note is predetermined by the form, requires careful planning to create the desired result.

The processes are simple. Two groups of four pitches run through every possible permutation of order and combination. Meanwhile, a rhythmic process divides the notes between the four instruments into cells of varying lengths. In this way the unbroken stream of eighth notes of which the piece is comprised are split into constantly shifting hocketed patterns. The changing rhythmic patterns (almost) never coincide with the changing harmonic patterns, so the piece (almost) never actually repeats while remaining static throughout, like the ocean.