Patterns on A Field (ens. version)
Duration: 12:00
Date of Composition: 1985/1992
Ensemble Version
PROGRAM NOTES:
Patterns on a Field is an instrumentation of my Piano Sonata No. 6, which was composed in 1985. The piano piece represented a new style for me, one that might be described as a combination of influences from minimalism and The Talking Heads. The instrumental version is slightly richer harmonically than the original, but in effect it is bare-bones music, dealing with repetition and intensity rather that development and a hierarchical structure. Virtually every feature is on the musical surface. Throughout various musical patterns are placed and displaced on a field of common time. From a perspective of earlier Western music, the patterns might at first appear as motives; but they will be heard as not “motivating” the piece. Instead, they merely appear and reappear, relative to the stasis of the field. The result is two-dimensional, non-dynamic, concrete.
The first performance of Patterns on a Field was conducted by Michael Barrett in Monte Carlo, 20 April 1992. The piano version was first performed by Anthony de Mare at the 92nd Street “Y” in New York City, 28 February 1988. -James Sellars