Penumbra : chamber ensemble
by Haydn Reeder (1984)
The work originated from a musical idea involving attacks and resonances.The resonance of a loud sound is analogous to the partial shadow outside the main shadow cast, for instance, by the sun's rays on the earth.
This main idea will be discerned more strongly in some parts of the work than in others. There are three main types of music connected by five episodes: speaking once more in terms of astronomy - three planets linked by smaller stars, light rays etc.. Of these three musics, the third involving the percussion, cello and bass clarinet is directly concerned with attacks and resonances.Their three entries occur throughout the work and express a progression from a texture in which the percussion plays attacks and the two sustaining instruments the resonances, to the opposite.
The other two musics may be likened to i) loose matter attracting material to itself, ii) masses becoming chaotic, then settling to a more static state. These three musics enter at various times and do not overlap, but they are sometimes overlapped by episodic material. Towards the end ambiguity is created between the first and second types.
In episodes 1 and 4 the listener also hears the initial idea. Episodes 2, 3 and 5 are concerned with motion, either arrested (loops), or apparently wild.
Instrumentation: Flute/piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, harp, cello, percussion (vibraphone, glockenspiel, bass drum, tenor, drum, 2 tom-toms, snare drum).
Duration: 8 min.
The listener may discern the influence of the music of Ligeti or Lutoslawski in this piece.
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