About this work:
This piece is an experiment in large scale form by dividing a time frame of circa 45 minutes into fragments that can be used in a mobile form. The only rules I have for the order is to have movements two and three played together sequentially, for movement four to not be the opening, and that the solos open and close the work.
These are seven pieces of a planned set of twelve that I wrote from late June through December of 2012. Like Debussy’s Preludes, they are both individual works and a whole. The “titles” of each are spelled in Dwemeris (and starting at the fifth) Oblivion runic fonts from the The Elder Scrolls. This is a way of labeling each piece without imposing a program on them.
I mostly used various septachord pitch collections to simulate the tonal paradigm on a background level. I also went with an approach similar to Debussy or Messiaen where motivic cells are superposed and juxtaposed into new forms and morph into new ideas because of it. This helped create a balance between unity and variance between movements.
Notation was a big hurdle to cross in this piece, as I wish to carefully guide the performers through a sound world rather than dictate their precise course. Another problem was choosing material that would fit a mobile form moment form piece; this was a great exercise.
What I have to say about the piece is as follows:
A passage forming a new memory that resounds throughout Time, along its myriad trails and manifold portals to eventually sound back at it's origin; but by that time you and I and all our co-conspirators will have most likely forgotten, leaving only a tiny scintilla of a memory to be sparked at that one, imprecise moment . . . . perhaps the Memory will reawaken, remember itself and its purpose, and venture onward.
The cover art is by Luke MacGilvray.