Windjammer (1995)was written for three instruments that I know and love well. Sometimes one instrument lays down the sound that the other two play against, while at other times a pair of them will play unisons (or some other harmonic interval) that the remaining instrument plays over. The roles trade off frequently, so that this is a real ensemble piece, with no one instrument predominating. The biggest challenge was to create a continuous bed of sound without the performers passing out from hyperventilation or oxygen deprivation.

Windjammer

MARY JANE LEACH is a composer/performer whose work reveals a fascination with the physicality of sound, its acoustic properties and how they interact with space. In many of her works Leach creates an other-worldly sound environment using difference, combination, and interference tones; these are tones not actually sounded by the performers, but acoustic phenomena arising from Leach’s deft manipulation of intonation and timbral qualities: “an acoustic Through the Looking Glass world based on sound that the performer is not making.” (The New Yorker).

Windjammer

mjleach