disc-_-ssion [and] dia-_ogue

disc-_-ssion [and] dia-_ogue - clarinet, alto saxophone, violin, cello | 4:00 | composed in October 2024 | premiered in October 2024

This work was written as part of the 48-hour composition symposium in collaboration with the Switch Ensemble. For this collaboration, the ensemble wanted pieces to focus on themes of technology and how they alter our societies.

The piece features a molto perpetuo that is passed between different instruments, a constant stream of eighth notes that never repeats itself, with the pitch content being algorithmically generated using a number generator. Additional voices are in conversation with each other, passing melodic ideas and gestures back and forth.

As the piece progresses, the interactions become more fraught. The molto perpetuo line becomes increasingly chromatic as more pitches are added to its algorithmic collection, and the other voices in the texture, feeding off of the perpetuo line, become increasingly dissonant and unstable. This tension ultimately reaches a boiling point when all 12 pitches are employed, with voices overlapping and interrupting each other, actively inciting the other. When the dust settles, the perpetuo line is removed, and what remains is a highly fragmented melodic line that highlights its emptiness and space, as if the digital and real space between them has grown larger than before. The piece closes with the interactions between different voices becoming increasingly distant from one another, like a signal ping waiting for a response.