Orbits
Andrew McManus
About this work:
Orbits is a work about musical gravity. The viola and piano behave like planetary objects engaged in a gravitational tug-of-war; they pull one another into different tempos and areas of musical material. The first conflict of the work occurs when the piano first enters, decidedly out of time with the viola, which is quickly drawn into the piano’s new tempo. After a brief period of unity this rhythmic conflict returns, escalating this time and culminating in the first climax of the work. What follows is a slow, sparse meditation, devoid of rhythmic tension, that invokes the weightlessness of outer space. The instruments rotate through this sequence of musical material twice more. The work ends with both instruments vanishing into the distance; the piano’s soft chords become increasingly sparse until nothing remains but resonance, while the viola, hushed by a mute, ascends so high that pitch gives way to the hiss of the bow hair.
Year composed: 2009
Duration: 00:09:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Keyboard plus One Instrument
Instrumentation: 1 Piano, 1 Viola