Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

The title encapsulates the essential idea explored within the work, and this idea has two main aspects.

Firstly, the work consists of six fragments, and each of them has a particular emotional / expressive quality, which is hinted at through each fragment's individual title. These titles were added after the fragments have been written, so the expressive and emotional characteristics were thought of as elements inherent within the sounds-qualities - rather than external ideas that pre-determine the sounding result and the form of the material.

Secondly, there is a motion within the work's structure and its sound-qualities. The structural motion is obtained through allowing the fragments to be arranged in any order - this is possible, because they are both distinct enough and yet related, so the structural flexibility is a way of exploring the ambiguous border between the individuality of each fragment and its role as part of a larger whole. As a result, the performer's moving from one fragment to the next creates a sense of journey through different, but somehow parallel, micro-worlds. The material that makes up those micro-worlds also contains an element of motion, in the sense that it presents sound-qualities that are in a state of transition. The unfixed, volatile, and continuously evolving nature of the sound-substance is the essential aspect of the musical language.

Also of significance is the scordatura used in this work: the 4th string is tuned down to ES, or E flat, according to Elizabeth Sellars' initials, and consequently, this low E flat plays the role of the fundamental of the work's pitch-structure.

Work Details

Year: 2005

Instrumentation: Violin.

Duration: 10 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Dedication note: Dedicated to Elizabeth Sellars

Commission note: Commissioned by Elizabeth Sellars with funds provided by Australia Council. Music Board.

First performance: by Elizabeth Sellars — 27 Nov 05. Melbourne