| dcterms.abstract | The genesis of Food from Stein was a commission from an ensemble in Vancouver, British Columbia. While that concert ultimately did not take place, it nonetheless dictated the instrumentation of the piece: flute, viola, harp and voice. This genesis also informed the structure of the piece. The commission required that the work reflect the concept of biodiversity (the performance was to occur in the Beatty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia). I chose to do this by using the theory of evolution to determine the work’s basic structure. Sections would be longer at the beginning and become shorter as the piece progressed, roughly to reflect the progression of geological eras. The harmonic language would likewise begin simply and become increasingly complex over time. Word of the project’s cancellation came to me just at the point in the score where the voice enters. Rather than discarding what I had already written, I decided to choose a new text and continue. It was at this point that I came across Gertrude Stein’s collection Tender Buttons. Despite the change of text (and nominal abandonment of the evolution idea), much of the original plan can still be discerned in both form—sectional, with longer sections generally closer to the beginning—and harmony: beginning simply, and generally becoming more complex. Stein's text uses language not to communicate, but to suggest, or to give the illusion of communicating. Communication of specific ideas is continually frustrated by oblique and unexpected word choices, and odd juxtapositions. Any meaning seems to be solely in the mind of the reader. This trait is reflected in the music. In terms of the harmonic language, I use a complicated form of serialism to suggest traditional harmony. The piece uses four pitch-set complexes to suggest traditional concepts of key and harmony. That is, the set complexes sometimes function as contrasting key areas, and sometimes as local harmonies (to suggest a cadence, for instance). Many forms and gestures used also mimic traditional ones. For instance, one section resembles a bel canto aria, and another a Baroque passacaglia. | |
