Signal Lost

2022
10 mins
2.2(II=corA).2(II=bcl)2(II=cbn)-4.2.3.1-
timp.perc.(2):
I=SD/2 gongs(E4,A4)/2 susp cyms/3 cowbl
II=BD/3 wblks/crots(E4-E5)
hrp-strings

Premiere: 24 June 2023
Federation Hall, Hobart
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Elena Schwarz, conductor

Programme Note

I attended a performance of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony in early 2020 and began contemplating more than I usually do on his deafness. This symphony was composed not long after Beethoven had written his Heiligenstadt Testament from 1802 – a letter meant for his brothers that outlays his descent into frustration, anger, despair, isolation and presumably suicide. Not long after that concert, the Covid pandemic hit and with it, our reliance on electronic communication increased more than I thought possible. There were parallels between Beethoven’s condition and pandemic life. Signal Lost is to do with the moment communication fails.
Originally planned to be performed late-2020, the premiere has been delayed many times due to the Covid situation. Each time the premiere was postponed, I revisited the piece, continually streamlining it rather than making it more complex. For example, a twelve-bar bass line that appeared once at the very end of the original version, now permeates the whole work. In this regard it functions like a ‘chaconne’ – a musical device where a repeating bass line stays relatively fixed allowing for invention and variation above it. In the case of Signal Lost, layers are added above the bass line on each repetition:- the musical material grows in density and impetus over each new cycle. At the climactic moment in the work, the whole orchestra mimics ‘anxious breathing’ – speeding up and slowing down in bursts. The music subsides to another repeating bass line (this time only three bars long). Above this, strings rise in pitch until there is only ‘white noise’ remaining. Against this, instruments colour the background with short melodic figurations The ending is a mirror of the opening – where material was pulled into focus, now things become hazy and fade into nothingness.
This work was commissioned by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, through the philanthropic support of the TSO Commissioning Circle.

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