SPACIOUS EUPHONY
Year of composition: 2016
Instrumentation: orchestra
Duration: 13’30”
Written under the aegis of NYO Canada’s RBC Foundation Composer-in-Residence program, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts
Premiere: NYO Canada, Perry So, cond.
Bélem Cultural Centre, Lisbon
July 28, 2016
PROGRAMME NOTE
Subtitled a “Concerto for Orchestra”, Spacious Euphony was written for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada while I occupied the position of RBC Foundation Composer-in-Residence in 2016. This virtuosic and multivalent work calls for massive orchestral forces that I use both soloistically and in various combinations, which arise and dissipate in a sort of ever-evolving concerto grosso. The structure of Spacious Euphony is founded upon a chromatic array of triads that are projected into various registral configurations, taking the shape of a vast spatial arch spanning its duration. By uniting issues of instrumental range, voicing, and blend with the unfolding of musical form, my approach came to serve as a vehicle to explore the orchestra from within.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- second prize winner, 2017 Prix Collégien de Musique Contemporaine
- broadcast on CBC Radio 2’s ‘In Concert’, September 11, 2016
- broadcast on BBC Radio 3, July 3, 2017
- commercially released on NYO Canada’s CD Lisboa 2016: Excerpts from the 2016 TD Tour to Portugal