Dialectics

Dialectics, for wind ensemble, is influenced by and based on the phenomenon of acoustic reverberation.  The work recreates and combines various natural sonic events in poetic ways, generating a striking sound world composed of quarter-tones and natural brass tuning.Two opposing musical ideas are presented in the piece. The first – melodic heterophony – is inspired by the many nearly simultaneous echoes that combine to form the reverberation of a sound. The second musical idea stretches out the process of reverberation in time and explores the attack, sustain and decay of various contrasting harmonies.The pitch material for the work is based entirely on the harmonic series and various compressions, expansions, and inversions of it.