Skeiron (2014-2015 / Rev. 2016)
C Flute/Bass Flute, Percussion, Electronics
Duration: ca. 30'
Recorded by the Iktus Duo (Hristina Blagoeva, Flute; Christopher Graham, Percussion) at Stony Brook University, June 2019
Excerpt
Region I – Interlude I – Region II – Interlude II
Program Note
Skeiron consists of five Regions, each defined by its own unique harmonic materials and instrumental combination (most markedly by the contrast between C flute and bass flute, as well as between metal and wooden percussion). The electronic Interludes consist of sustained sound continua created from manipulated vocal and air sounds; these, initially, are highly static episodes functioning as links between Regions, their microtonal tuning contrasting starkly with the instruments' equal-tempered harmonies. As the work progresses, the electronic and instrumental music increasingly interpenetrate one another, with microtonal intonation introduced into the flute's music in the work's final Region.
The title is the name of the ancient Greek deity of the northwest (southeast-blowing) wind, a reference to the prevalence of air and wind sounds in the composition (in both flutes and electronics). I feel that the work evokes an imaginary natural world, in which the intimacy and occasional mercuriality of the flutes' and percussion's music against the atmosphere and stasis of the electronics suggest the organicism of life against the backdrop of nonliving, impersonal natural forces – as well, perhaps, of the slow processes of being shaped by such forces.
Program Note
Skeiron consists of five Regions, each defined by its own unique harmonic materials and instrumental combination (most markedly by the contrast between C flute and bass flute, as well as between metal and wooden percussion). The electronic Interludes consist of sustained sound continua created from manipulated vocal and air sounds; these, initially, are highly static episodes functioning as links between Regions, their microtonal tuning contrasting starkly with the instruments' equal-tempered harmonies. As the work progresses, the electronic and instrumental music increasingly interpenetrate one another, with microtonal intonation introduced into the flute's music in the work's final Region.
The title is the name of the ancient Greek deity of the northwest (southeast-blowing) wind, a reference to the prevalence of air and wind sounds in the composition (in both flutes and electronics). I feel that the work evokes an imaginary natural world, in which the intimacy and occasional mercuriality of the flutes' and percussion's music against the atmosphere and stasis of the electronics suggest the organicism of life against the backdrop of nonliving, impersonal natural forces – as well, perhaps, of the slow processes of being shaped by such forces.