oceanograph

(2024)

for standard issue

flute, clarinet, percussion, violin, cello — 5'

premièred Aug 02 2024

Loading audio peaks...

Written as part of Sound and Music’s In the Making program for resident ensemble standard issue, over a three day period. Premièred on 2^nd August 2024, Richard Steinitz Building, University of Huddersfield.

The theme of the programme was ‘waves’. I decided to depict the ocean’s chaos and uncertainty with techniques such as intervallic rotation to create continuous change, basing all pitch material off a single hexachord. Due to the colossal scale of the ocean, trying to represent it in an objective way would be pointless so I instead take contradictory subjective approaches; the piece is divided into two sections inspired by opposing Romantic portrayals of the ocean as violent and sensitive.

The piece takes a human, shoreline perspective: one instrument carries a melody and the others hold pitches as an analogue for objects sporadically washing up. In the second section I use more intimate, fragile orchestration, blending air noises and high cello harmonics. The rigid pitch material is also altered, flattening one pitch to approximate the 7^th partial, resulting in a resonant and ethereal timbre.

Broadcast on ResonanceFM on 25^th July 2025 and 30^th July 2025 as part of Sound and Music’s The Sampler Mixtape #143.