Seven Essays on Liberty
open instrumentation
Date of Composition: 1992
PROGRAM NOTES:
A collaboration between composer and graphic artist. James Sellars, the composer, began with several chords in conventional notation.
These chords led to a grid, which happened to be nearly symmetrical.
Robert Harberts, the graphic artist, superimposed spirals on the grid.
A number chart, with corresponding colors, was also derived.
The graphic artist extracted portions of the spirals to make 6 more designs. These 6, plus the original grid, are the seven visual essays.
The composer used the visual essays and the number chart to write the complete piece…in traditional notation…based on the original chords. Shown are the first two pages of the twenty-one page score.
-James Sellars