Form
0:00 - 2:20 • I. Waves with Spectra
2:20 - 4:14 • II. Pulse with Collapsing Phrases and Echoes
4:14 - 6:20 • III. Nostalgic Slow Dance with Rewind
6:20 - 8:38 • IV. Stippled Canon with Bells
8:38 - 11:10 • V. Velocity Meadows
Note: I use the UGA Hodgson Wind Ensemble recording as reference for the timings listed here.
The work is written in five short sections – each lasting roughly two minutes and all performed attacca. The work features a chiastic structure where the outer movements are mirrored around the central section of the piece.
Movements I and V feature rapid tremolo and arpeggiation figuration in the solo oboe over sustained harmonic material in the ensemble that is spaced in a manner that mimics the spacing of the overtone series. This is characteristic of music influenced by spectralism – compare the ending of movement V with the opening of Partiels by Gérard Grisey.
Movements II and IV feature pulsing and repeated notes with occasional echoing and reverberating gestures – the “pulse,” “echoes,” and “bells” referred to in the movement titles.
Movement III is a two-part structure which begins with sustained harmonies in the winds over gentle harp and piano arpeggiation. After one incomplete cycle of the harmonic progression of this section, there is an abrupt “rewind” in the electronics and the brass followed by a repeat of the end of movement II. Then the harmonic progression of movement III re-starts, now with additional sustained voices and melodic material from the soloist.
The chiastic structure at work in Velocity Meadows creates a satisfying sense of return at the arrival of movement V, but it also effectively highlights the work’s explicitly programmatic elements at work in the third movement – Nostalgic Slow Dance with Rewind. The hypnotic, minimalist textures of this movement, the distantly-related and surprising tertian harmonies that it employs, the aural rewind effect which it interjects, and the movement title’s allusion to nostalgia all invoke the slippery nature of memory and the strange non-causality of dream logic.