PROJECTSWORKS IN PROGRESS:
New work for piccolo/bass flute duo “the failure of surface” in collaboration with David Brynjar Franzson to be premiered in Oslo, September 2008 at UNM
Solo work from John Croft for C flute. To be premiered in London, November 2008
A solo/cadenza from Donald J. Stewart os jústi to be premiered in 2009
Duos/solos from Evan Johnson . Premiere 2009/10
A new work for flute and ensemble by Dominik Karski for 2009
A new work for flute and percussion from James Saunders for 2009
A new work from Rei Munakata for flute for 2008
A new work from Jeroen Speak for flute and small ensemble “‘Eratonsene’s Sieve”. Premiere in 2009/10
A new work for bass flute and amplification from Oliver Searle. Premiere 2009/10.
A new work for bass flute and the Estonian Radio Choir from Jüri Reinvere premiered in April 2008.
COLLABORATIONS:
Devising a concert programme/installation with Juan Parra Cancino and eventual collaboration with his duo, WireGriot .Concerts planned for January (Sweden) and February (Holland) 2009
COMMISSIONS:
´Rapt Before the Sky’ for flute by Martin Iddon
John Croft for alto flute and MAX/MSP
After meeting the ancient poets and philosophers, Dante is guided from the first circle of hell, with its castle and its meadows, “forth from the quiet to the air that trembles”, into the second circle, where the excessively passionate are buffeted about in a “whirlwind of lovers” (as William Blake calls it). The title is thus drawn from the point at which the poet and his guide are crossing from the still, calm, Appoline world of Reason into the tempestuous, Dyonisian world of those who “subject reason to desire”; the trembling of the air is the first sign of the tempestuous world into which they are stepping. While not seeking to illustrate the scene, the piece exists on the border of these two worlds, stillness erupting into convulsions, which recede again into silence. But each also infects the other; the quiet sounds are disturbed by tremors, while the violent eruptions reveal moments of gentleness (just as Heraclitus, philosopher of fire, lives in the first circle, and the second is home to such noble souls as Tristan and Dido).
The piece follows the purist approach of my earlier Sonata for cello and live electronics, whereby soundfiles and score-following are forgone in favour of immediate response to the present sound. I have sought a sense of instrumental continuity between flute and electronic treatment while also allowing the resulting sounds to evoke the trembling air which sometimes envelops the player.
J.C.
Review
“I have already mentioned the startlingly evocative nature of the concluding piece, ne l’aura che trema for alto flute and electronics. It opened with alto flute by itself then the electronic element made a splendidly discreet entry. The two elements of the piece were superbly well co-ordinated, the electronics mostly providing either an echo or an extension of what the flute was doing. If you thought of the description of the verses in Dante’s Inferno mentioned in the programme note while listening to this music, the effect was overwhelming”
22/11/07 Alan Cooper, Aberdeen University Concert Series
Stephen Davismoon (Scottish Arts Council commission)
On the infinite…..where to commence…..where to cease?
As the 19th century mathetician Georg Cantor demonstrated, by starting with an infinite set of possibilities, a process of multiplication and/or combination will lead to a still greater infinite set, and so on, an iterative process that is in itself infinite….to an ‘unending tower of infinities’
how to approach the infinite sonically…... to the time that it passes through metric/non-metric ....the motion, excitation (...breath?) that created it the combinations that begin codificiation…strophes even…
Then suppose the executant is then free to present the strophes in any order…and let the sound that is emitted, be transformed via circuitry, creating, as it were, an infinit hallway of sonic mirrors….
S.D.
Michael Spencer: I built my dreams around you for solo bass flute.
