tag (and release)

click here for score sample (pages 1-8)

Silo String Quartet and Barrie Webb - premiere performance

year: 2012         instrumentation: trombone and string quartet        duration: 13'

for and premiered by: Barrie Webb and the Silo String Quartet        

programme note:

Tag: as in the children's game; the soloist is 'it'.

Release: a release for the composer (and his performers) from previous modes of engagement with small ensemble music that have almost always required the services of a conductor. In this work perpetual, conventionally written soli are passed between the players. When not playing soli, musicians are reacting loosely to the solo line with a series of gestures; the soloist becomes a conductor of sorts.

Tag and release: from recreational fishing, in the interests of research and conservation.

The work is continuous but divided into three sections.

soli 1-7: introductory (loose) palindrome
soli 8-14: suddenly noise-based...gradual re-emergence of pitch
soli 18-20: intensification

With thanks to the MCL, the Silo String Quartet, Barrie Webb and Jack Body.