a passing colour (2020)

a passing colour duo for two flutes or two flute solos

Dedicated to Sean Quinn

Duration: circa 10 minutes (for the flute duo and each solo piece).  

This is a timecode-supported polytemporal composition.

Program Note:

There is no programmatic intention in what unfolds as sound in this piece: any or no relationship to the title and the sounding music is forged at the discretion of the composer, performer and listener. Despite this statement, there is an unfolding of material that manifests through contrasting sections of music to hopefully provide the listener with a compelling experience even without programmatic intent. It is the interplay between and within these sections that is the narrative content of the composition.

There are three, free-standing iterations of the piece titled a passing colour: first, a timecode-supported polytemporal duo for two flutes; and second and third, two solo flute pieces a passing colour flute 1 and a passing colour flute 2, both performed without the timecode support written into each part that together and performed using timecode as instructed, comprise the duo piece.

The material constituting the flute writing in both the solo and duo pieces stems from, among other sources, clarinet writing in the each changing series of pieces, similarly conceived as duos and trios combined from three solo pieces for clarinet that are themselves self-borrowed, transformed and enhanced materials from the violin part in always searching for home (2020), compositions that immediately preceded this, and where those materials were themselves self-borrowed and transformed from the violin 1 part of the 2016 string quartet, observation 5. In addition, a bar of material self-borrowed from liquid music (2017) for Bb clarinet is much expanded and developed in these pieces (see below).

I am always fascinated how the combination of musical materials with other content, in this case, the two solo flute pieces brought together to make a duo piece, affects how these materials interact in time, constantly changing the vertical, harmonic and rhythmic relationships of the combined elements to alter how we perceive this unchanged material when presented in different contexts. These contextual changes can radically alter our perception of the sounding music.

The a passing colour series of pieces is dedicated to my friend and colleague, the composer and flautist, Sean Quinn.

For more information about how timecode-supported polytemporal music works, please watch this video:

© Marc Yeats October 2020