Astronomy Pieces

Ekpyrosis is an alternative theory to the prevailing Big Bang theory. Though it isn't the most accepted theory for the origin of our universe it is still held by many scientists and has not been disp[roved. It holds that, rather than infinitiely expanding, the universe will get to a point where the energy from it's initial explosion will disapate to the point where gravity will take over and the universe will contract until it contracts again to a single supercharged point, and then the cycle will resume. It solved the unanswered question of what happened before the Big Band in a rather elegant way. 

Ekpyrosis is basically a short one movement concerto for orchestra. It is inspired by late Stravinsky and Henri Duttileux most closely. The piece is based on 14 permutations of a single 12 note series which is treated rather freely, though more strictly than is my usual practice. There are many sections where strict serial order is kept, though there are also sections where the hexachord of the row are treated more like scales or modes. Throughout the piece the way the harmony "sounds" is particularly important to me. In other words keeping acoustical principles of wider intervals in the botom of chords, and as a result tonal centers are never far from audible. 

Ekpyrosis is a pretty big step forward for me as a composer. I have usually been pretty comfortably neoclassical as a composer. I love traditional forms from the baroque and classical periods and most of my work fits in those forms, though there are pieces that don't conform so readily. But I've never written anything as formally free as this piece. It is dominated by two motives, the incantory opening in the winds, which is inpired by the Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Metaboles, and the more langorous answering duets by first the clarinet and bass clarinet and then by the oboe and English Horn. All of the material in the piece is drawn from one or the other of these two motives. But thanks to the frequent permutations of the row, nothing is ever repeated exactly. Even the climactic recapitulation is harmonically very different, as the row is now quite transformed from it's original form. The result is a sort of phantasmagorical work in which partterns and note combinations are constantly splitting apart and recombining, rather like the universe. 

Sonata in One Movement for Piano - Flow 1

Christopher Gordon Forbes