Spindrift

by Matthew Whittall

Description

Spindrift
is a trail of fine, windblown particles streaming off the crest of a
larger form – like snow from a mountain ridge, water droplets from a
wave, or sand from a dune. I sought to create a sounding parallel to
this visual image in the way small, highly ornamented figurations are
buffeted about, creating a volatile, slowly evolving tapestry of
flashes, echoes and trills suspended in the higher registers. The title
also refers more obliquely to the two kinds of motion the piece is built
on, either whirling around fixed points in space, or floating freely.
The overall texture is very spare and brittle, more wind than land. But
as the music progresses, the larger mass underlying the more rapid
figurations slowly becomes audible, almost a tone at a time, forming a
sort of dark, elemental chorale looming into the foreground about midway
through, bringing a resonant stillness that is never fully dispelled
afterward. The piece simply drifts off in a series of ever briefer, ever
more distant flurries of notes.

Instrumentation

hp, pno

Category

Chamber Works

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Archive number

MF23128

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