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Cantus Contra Cantum (1990) |
Cantus Contra Cantum is composed for a large ensemble of forty players plus the addition of live electronics manipulated by a Yamaha WX7 wind controller.
The ensemble is divided equally into two antiphonally separated mirror image groups consisting of three trios each: flute (doubling piccolo and alto flute) and two violins, oboe (doubling cor anglais) and two violins, tenor saxophone (doubling soprano) and two violas, horn and two cellos trumpet and two violins. Between the two ensembles there is a bass group consisting of two trombones and two double basses.
As the title suggests the piece is primarily concerned with polyphony and simultaneity. Throughout the piece solo instruments from each ensemble alternately play recurring melodic lines in different stages of melodic and rhythmic transformation, providing a focal 'hauptstimme' to the piece that weaves continuously through the two ensembles against a changing harmonic backcloth. This basic background-foreground perspective of harmony and melody is constantly invaded by the superimposition of secondary melodic lines and streams of complex antiphonal exchanges between the two ensembles. As the piece unfolds there is a gradual shift in spatial perception, the listener becoming aware of electronically created 'harmonic complexes' engulfing all four corners of the auditorium. This strange soundworld eventually transforms into a kaleidoscope of rotating melodies broken up and projected through eight loud-speakers drawing the ear away from the two acoustic ensembles which now merely provide a kind of 'ghostly halo' and eventual sustained note chord which accompanies a cascade of proliferating melodic lines that bring the piece to its conclusion.
© Simon Bainbridge, 1991