duration approx. 16 minutes (whole set), composed 1996
this piece is recorded on CD (Transparent things)
Transparent things, through which the past shines!
Man-made objects, or natural ones, inert in themselves but much used by careless life (you are thinking, and quite rightly so, of a hillside stone over which a multitude of small animals have scurried in the course of incalculable seasons) are particularly difficult to keep in surface focus: novices fall through the surface, humming happily to themselves, and are soon reveling with childish abandon in the story of this stone, of that heath
Vladimir Nabokov
The four pieces
which make up Transparent things each explore notions of transparency:
the idea of looking through a surface in search of something less tangible, and
more resonant. They were inspired by both the above quotation and my long walks
on and around Stanage Edge, in the Peak District, Derbyshire (UK). Although the
individual pieces came from memories of specific times and places, they are not
overtly programmatic. Perhaps I was seeking a musical analogy for that growing
clarity of mind than can arise during a solitary walk, when there is time to
reflect, to remember and to get thoughts and dreams into focus.
The
pieces can be performed as a set (keeping the above order) or
individually/in pairs.
Commissioned for Stephen Gutman, with funds provided by a Holst Award
------