︎︎︎Info
Title
Dead In The Water
(version for strings)
(version for strings)
Inventory
string ensemble
Year
2014 / 2024
Duration
8’30”
Commission
Margaret Lancaster
Publisher
Adrian Knight Music
︎︎︎Detailed Inventory
String Ensemble
Violin 1 (min. 1, preferably 6 or more)
Violin 2 (min. 1, preferably 5 or more)
Viola (min. 1, preferably 4 or more)
Cello (min. 1, preferably 3 or more)
Double Bass (min. 1, preferably 2 or more)
or Consort
Treble Viols (3)
Bass Viols (2)
String Ensemble
Violin 1 (min. 1, preferably 6 or more)
Violin 2 (min. 1, preferably 5 or more)
Viola (min. 1, preferably 4 or more)
Cello (min. 1, preferably 3 or more)
Double Bass (min. 1, preferably 2 or more)
or Consort
Treble Viols (3)
Bass Viols (2)
︎︎︎Note
I wrote ‘Dead in the Water’ for the flutist Margaret Lancaster in 2014. This version for string ensemble (or consort of viols) was created in 2024. The piece is an exploration of stasis in four adjacent sections:
1 an opening
2 a reduction of the opening material using only ‘black keys’
3 a series of palindromes
4 a return to the opening, a half step up
In the original version, a prerecorded electronic track using samples that Margaret recorded played behind the soloist—a hidden, virtual consort. It was this notion of a consort that subsequently gave birth to the current version.
Throughout the work, harmonic planes intersect each other and combine to form strange chains of partially recycled components. There was a kind of persistence to follow these chains to their logical conclusion, but in doing so, the piece ‘sacrificed’ its inner mobility, becoming a slave to the harmonic current. I was not satisfied with these limitations, so the piece evolved through an organic, intuitive process: bits and pieces chopped off, new ones attached, overall attributes and individual events altered. I wanted ‘Dead in the Water’ to evoke the feeling of stasis by tracing a meandering pathway along a straight line: not quite settling, repeating but never exactly, advancing and retreating, promising an exit only to immediately close it. I was lured into the maze by a surreal sense of possibility against complete rigidity, a witness to two opposites absurdly negotiating—a waltz in 4/8 time.
I wrote ‘Dead in the Water’ for the flutist Margaret Lancaster in 2014. This version for string ensemble (or consort of viols) was created in 2024. The piece is an exploration of stasis in four adjacent sections:
1 an opening
2 a reduction of the opening material using only ‘black keys’
3 a series of palindromes
4 a return to the opening, a half step up
In the original version, a prerecorded electronic track using samples that Margaret recorded played behind the soloist—a hidden, virtual consort. It was this notion of a consort that subsequently gave birth to the current version.
Throughout the work, harmonic planes intersect each other and combine to form strange chains of partially recycled components. There was a kind of persistence to follow these chains to their logical conclusion, but in doing so, the piece ‘sacrificed’ its inner mobility, becoming a slave to the harmonic current. I was not satisfied with these limitations, so the piece evolved through an organic, intuitive process: bits and pieces chopped off, new ones attached, overall attributes and individual events altered. I wanted ‘Dead in the Water’ to evoke the feeling of stasis by tracing a meandering pathway along a straight line: not quite settling, repeating but never exactly, advancing and retreating, promising an exit only to immediately close it. I was lured into the maze by a surreal sense of possibility against complete rigidity, a witness to two opposites absurdly negotiating—a waltz in 4/8 time.