MAKING SPACE
FOR ORCHESTRA
MAKING SPACE
The ideas behind Making Space were introduced to me during my time as Artist-in-Residence at University of Bristol School of Maths. Certain sequences can be seen to grow in two different ways: either by adding new material to the end (like writing a sentence), or by stretching the sequence out, separating each element, and letting new material fill the gaps.
The first approach matches our understanding of how time, and therefore music, develops. It moves in one direction, with each moment following the one before, and old events disappearing into the past as new events occur.
Making Space was written using the second approach. It opens with a repeated sequence of nine chords. For the piece to develop, it spreads those chords out, creating space between them, and allowing new music to fill the gaps. When this has happened several times, the nine chords span almost a minute, functioning as the harmonic changes that underpin everything else.
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Duration: c.7'
Instrumentation: 2(2/picc).2(2/CA).2(2/bcl).2(2/cbsn) - 4.3.3.0 - timp - perc(2): mar/crot/roto-toms/BD/glock/xyl/TD/vib - hp - strings
Commissioned by: BBC Radio 3
First Performance: 05.05.22 Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
First Performers: BBC Concert Orchestra / Anna-Maria Helsing
First Broadcast: 13.05.22, BBC Radio 3 in Concert