chamber Orchestra - plumes program note
I. Turbulent
II. Laminar
Plumes was inspired by images from the activist photographer J. Henry Fair’s series ‘Industrial Scars.’ These ominously alluring aerial photographs document humanity’s plundering of the Earth — via toxic waste sites—in full technicolor splendor. I was captivated by the apocalyptic contradictions that inhabited the unnatural nature portraits; their elegant shapes and bold tints evoked for me the abstract concreteness of musical contours and harmonies. The two movements depict, though not in any explicit way, the pathways by which a mass of material spreads from its origin. Turbulent and laminar plumes are distinct formulations, essential to life, that arise in the natural world; tragically, they are also the means by which pollution disperses throughout our oceans, air, and land.
“I had a melody in mind that was very simple. It was just a few notes. It was five notes that have a kind of rhythm to them. The fifth note is syncopated. So even though it’s just a descending scale, it has this marker on it at the end. That becomes central as the melody gets expanded, moves through space and becomes developed. That kind of calling card becomes central to the entire piece... In the first movement, it’s very rhythmic, and then the second movement takes that same motif and draws it way out. The shape is much more elongated, stretched and luxurious.”