Through Glass Mountains (2008-2012)

 Programme note

“When memories come back to you, you sometimes feel as if you
were  looking at the past through a glass mountain”   

W. G. Sebald


Through Glass Mountains is a set of five pieces that explore concepts of mimesis, memory, and borrowed materials. The five movements that make up Through Glass Mountains are based on arias by the English composer Henry Purcell and evoke various memory concepts including false memory, layers of memory, distortion, embellished, and suppressed memory; as well  as nostalgia and allusion. The narrative for the whole piece is one of bringing the source  material from deep inside the work  (inaudible) to the surface; a process which is complete by the  end of movement V. In addition to a  mimetic æsthetic, the melodic and harmonic material of the piece  employs altered harmonic series (series that do not occur in the natural world). Individual  movements can be performed separately or  as part of the whole unified work. The work was written between 2010 and  2013.

Duration c1 hour


Flute (Piccolo, Alto Flute)
Oboe (Cor Anglais)
Clarinet (Bb, Eb, Bass Clarinet)
Bassoon
Horn
Trumpet Bb 
Trombone
Percussion (Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Orchestral Bass Drum, Wind Chimes, Timbales X2, Temple Blocks X2, Trash Metal X5 low-high, Pedal Bass drum, Snare, Hi-Hat, Suspended Cymbal, Triangle (for Oboe/Clarinet Player), Tubular Bells)
Harp
Piano & Keyboard (Slap Bass Tone)
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Double Bass

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I. Epithalamium
II. What shall I do ...
III. An Evening Hymn
IV.  ...to show how much I love her?
V.  I see she flies me ev’rywhere