Unseen
Unseen
Year: 2022
Heading: for orchestra
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2—4.3.4.0—timp.perc(2):vib/marimba—pft—strings
Duration: 47'
Study score:
To purchase study score ($40), click here
Recording:
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Movements:
1 No. 1 5:34
2 No. 2 4:41
3 No. 3 4:54
4 No. 4 4:26
5 No. 5 5:41
6 No. 6 4:02
7 No. 7 6:14
8 No. 8 4:55
9 No. 9 4:27
Press:
..the material exudes radiance..All one need do is give oneself over to the forty-five-minute recording and bask in the splendour of its sound and rhythmic vitality…
his music always replenishes and rewards. —Ron Schepper, Textura
The rhythmic patterns are mesmerizing, and the orchestral palette shines and sparkles with subtlety and nuances. It’s easy to let go while listening to this music… —Wisconsin Public Radio
Jubilant remembrances of minimalism blend with the satisfying immediacy of late 20th century popular music. —The Listener’s Club
Simultaneously majestic, spirited, and melancholy, this is the music of long road-trips and continuously shifting landscapes. —The Listener’s Club
Program Note:
UNSEEN (2024) is the fourth composition and recording that completes a tetralogy of work; BEING (2020), PSALMS AND CANTICLES (2021), and TIME (2022) have preceded it.
Unifying these four projects is the use of syncopated rhythms caused by the intersection of 3’s against 2’s, which through their interlocking, creates a unified rhythmic effect, or groove. Melodies and harmonies flow from the rhythms used.
What sets UNSEEN apart from the other three is the size of the group: a full orchestra. I brought together musicians I’ve worked with in New York with the strings of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. The scope is larger and the color possibilities more varied when writing for orchestra, compared to chamber groups. Colossal timbres can be achieved with a full brass section, woodwinds in pairs can provide scintillating pinpoints of light, and a full string section gives a sheen of richness (through the accumulation of minute pitch variation) as well as the particularity of unified bow strokes.
The title, UNSEEN, comes from the Nicene Creed “…creator of all things, seen and unseen.” We are a visual people—we take in the world primarily through our eyes. But what we value the most are things that can’t be seen: feelings, ideas, energy, accomplishment, memories, contentment.
What I seek in these four projects is a way for music to take us outside of ourselves. If through its rhythms and harmonies we give up a literal grip on the now, such experience opens the potential of renewal and even a kind of cleansing joy.