Eating Clouds is a baby's view from a moving carry cot. How it might familiarise the clouds and abstract shapes and prints of everyday objects into its most essential needs and desires. It is comprised of three movements.
I wanted to write a moody, quick texture-changing piece that suddenly alternates between the bold and fiery, the subtle and delicate gestures to the puckish and cautious moments.
First movement is based on the note sequence - B flat-E flat-B natural-A natural (of which the equivalent German designations constitute the initials of my first name.)
Second movement contains two strata - long lines that gradually metamorphose into various chords in the lower stratum and natural harmonics in the stratosphere. It is tutti glissandi which means all strings glide gradually just before their next note.
Third movement is highly chromatic and scuttery. It is based on a minor 2nd above and below a fundamental note.
This piece was finalist at the International Aberdeen Music Prize and was premiered by members of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in April 2007. |