Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

The genesis of this work for solo piano came through conversations that pianist Oscar Wong and I had during the course of The ANAM Set. We both discovered a shared interest in the piano and its extensive literature, as well as in the beauty of natural forms and geometric patterns such as the mandala and the organic logarithmic growth spiral of the nautilus shell. 'Unfolding to an infinite number' is a musical exploration of this shared interest.

The work is a series of episodes based on a tendril-like idea presented at the outset. Built into the opening idea are gently unfolding musical patterns alluding to favourite familiar piano figurations, also designed to audibly express the spatial dimensions of the Fibonacci series in semiquaver units. These patterns then seed episodes of increasing pianistic virtuosity, proportionally expanding outwards, varying and miniaturising the opening patterns in increasing dimensions. Each pattern and episode is numbered according to the Fibonacci series in boxes in the score as follows -

0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610

This work intends to convey an energy that spirals outward - a fusion of natural patterns and forms expressed through virtuosic piano writing.

Work Details

Year: 2021

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 8 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Written for: Oscar Wong

Commission note: Commissioned by Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), The ANAM Set with funds provided by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund.

First performance: by Oscar Wong — 20 Sep 21. Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, VIC