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Work


silk / gravel

for string orchestra

Year:  2011   ·  Duration:  8m
Instrumentation:  for string Orchestra, ideally at least 6.6.4.4.2 but can work with fewer: minimum would be 4.4.3.3.1

Year:  2011
Duration:  8m
Instrumentation  for string Orchestra, ideal...

Alex Taylor
Composer

Composer:   Alex Taylor

Films, Audio & Samples

Alex Taylor: silk / gravel ...

Embedded audio
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Sample Score

Sample: pages 1 - 8

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Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

This work is an exploration of the possibilities of the string orchestra as a body of sound, the orchestra at times acting like one giant super-instrument composed of intricately superimposed layers. Old textures are continually swallowed up, recycled and transformed, playing out a finely balanced tension between static and active, supple and brittle, strong and fragile. From a fluid, tangled haze, individual voices periodically emerge to assert some kind of nostalgic lyricism, but each time they are ultimately subsumed, swallowed up in an eerie, ambivalent mass of sound. Stylistically the music is varied and eclectic, weaving together the intricate, spidery lines of Ligeti, the delicate chordal sonorities of Messiaen, the caustic anger of Shostakovich and even the brooding menace of Anthony Watson.


Dedication note

to all those affected by the Pike River Mine disaster


Contents note

one movement


Performance history

27 Feb 2011: Intrepid Music Project - ARCO

13 Mar 2011: Intrepid Music Project - ARCO (2nd concert)

Performed by Westlake Chamber Orchestra, cond. Mark Bennett