Slant Apparatus
Peter Van Zandt Lane
About this work:
Slant Apparatus, for chamber orchestra, was written in the Summer of 2010 for the Wellesley Composers Conference. One of my primary compositional approaches to this piece was to exploit the tension between freely written material and process music, mingling the two in ways I found interesting. The piece inverts some of the rhythmic processes that set the groundwork for passages in the outside sections. For example, the most intense moment of the first section contains simple material over an ostinato that is mechanically expanding rhythmically. When the same material recurs near the end, the ostinato prematurely collapses through rhythmic diminution. This change, or slant of directionality works in conjunction with more intuitive kinds of musical development to (hopefully) create interesting changes of momentum in recurring musical sections. Much of the material from the middle section is borrowed from a chamber piece, Pace, written in 2006 for Xanthos Ensemble. Technical methods aside, I have strived in this piece to construct a work that is fast-paced, energetic, and virtuosic.
Version: for chamber orchestra
Year composed: 2010
Duration: 11:00:40
Ensemble type: Orchestra:Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 1 Clarinet, 1 Bassoon, 1 Horn in F, 1 Trumpet, 1 Trombone, 1 Percussion (General), 1 Strings (General)
Instrumentation notes: Flute doubles picc., clarinet doubles bass