The Snow Leopard (2021)
Arr. for string orchestra (2023)
6 minutes, 15 seconds
Note
The Snow Leopard is a piece written to explore sound and mood through dense undulating canons and intersecting contrapuntal writing. To create the music's element of sound mass, I became fascinated with writing arpeggiated lines that were constantly shifting from a place of increased velocity to diminished velocity. I then took these lines and their relation to their own change in velocity and offset the times that those velocities happened.
Changes in the harmony in one line also reveal themselves in adjoining lines at specific points in the velocity. It is a sort of process music that allows me the freedom to dip in and out of worlds of molasses and worlds of extremity. These shifting arpeggiated canons serve to build the metastasizing sound mass that pervades the music.
Another element in The Snow Leopard is its use of long lines that cut through the ensemble. These lines, mostly written without vibrato, become a bed for the more hyper-motion to sit on top of or alongside. These lines also are leading a majority of the harmonic changes, especially near the end of the piece. They gliss and move into gnarled pairings and stacks of grotesque and serene harmony.
The intended result is of music that morphs between worlds of gossamer and cacophony and feels like it hangs in an existence outside of rhythmic repetition, bringing the listener through a tangled, rich journey.
The above recording of The Snow Leopard is of the string quartet and synthesizer version, which can be heard on my second album of original compositions, Sun, Will Grow.
Digital download of all performance materials including score and parts.
Score
