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Dark Matter (1999-2003) |
oboe and 18 instruments - 18'
The name given to this concertino, for solo oboe and 18 instruments, derives from the expression currently used by scientists to describe the ‘materials’ of the Universe that are ‘probably’ there, but can’t be seen. It seems that the Universe displays many kinds of actions and reactions that can’t be explained by looking at the matter in space that we can see and consequently ‘know about’!
This work treats on acoustic material that can be heard (of course), but also deals with effects from music that is not in fact heard at all. I began sketches for the work that actually involved a parallel composition of the music to be performed together with another set of ‘sounds’ that influenced it but would never be heard in performance. But whilst this technique produced some interesting results, I couldn’t build a large-scale work based on these methods.
Eventually I took a semi-autobiographical approach and decided to make a piece that painted a ‘sound-portrait’ derived from the interplay between my conscious self and that revealed in dreams and fantasy. Consequently the first movement is a kind of representation of my conscious love of music of all kinds and from all times and places. The intervening (and succeeding) cadenza acts as a ‘bridge’ to the second and final movement in which a sound world from my unconscious is invoked and evoked. If a significant part of us is represented by the stuff of which dreams are made, this final movement attempts to manifest just that – the ‘dark matter’ of my musical mind…
Edward Cowie, October 2003.