ABOUT MUSIC FOR A SIMPLE MEDITATION

       & STRINGS WIND & BRASS?

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• These Two Different Pieces  both share the cut down, blank and starkly repetitive forms typical to the Minimalist/Systems Music approach. However, by creating unexpected counterpoints and surprising harmonies without unnecessary ornamentation as the music swells, essentially growing out of its own exploration of itself (despite itself, almost), there is a deliberate exploration of the idea of Minimalism and Systems Music as a means of expression (again, almost despite itself), not only as a break from earlier modes towards depersonalisation and, in a sense, "purity", but also as a remarkably traditional but "exploded out" approach towards reinvigorating modern Western composition, through the "building and resolution" of tension in ways that reach into the modern psyche.

• Both “music or a simple meditation” and “Music for Strings, Wind, & Brass” are intended to fit into the framework of Minimalist composition, but as the composer, the exciting challenge was to create something that adheres to strict Minimalist rules (which demand almost absurdist, mind-numbingly bland simplicity and deliberate abandonment of musical structure) while still lending a sense of movement, and therefore also heightened engagement, through the almost covert introduction of more traditional compositional techniques within the Minimalist framework.  The seemingly unvarying repetition, designed to create a slowly increasing sense of musical tension, almost imperceptibly and then suddenly surprise the ear with a 4-part harmony, forcing a feeling of resolution while continuing to reinforce "tension-creating" structures which reach into a much more modern experience.

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• The Title of these Two Different Pieces, taken together as a whole, comes from the idea that they are fundamentally dissimilar in terms of instrumentation, but despite this, form a seamless whole in terms of compositional technique and structure.  The naming suggests the nature of what the composition seeks to explore: the Minimalist framework of sameness, repetition, invariability, applied to movement, counterpoint, harmony, and underlying hints of structure which still inform, even within the constraints of a modern Systems style that ostensibly abandons these fundamentals.  Taken as a whole, there is something fleeting, engaging in this counterpoint of musical ideas that attracts me quite deeply.  It is actually something fundamental to my yearning as a composer, and a concept that is more difficult to express in writing than it is in music.