Matthew Rowan - Composer

2008 --
for chamber orchestra

Each of the three movements of Memory On Circles represents a stage in the process of seeking the truth of an event through forgetting, as observed in works of author Marguerite Duras. The theme of the first movement is the event, the second movement consists of a feeling of stasis with underlying morass phrases, which is a diversion the event takes through oblivion, and the third movement presents the truth of the event by invention of new material. Although these three movements have contrasting attributes, they share the same three short phrases from Robert Schumann’s composition for solo piano – Kreisleriana – but treated in various ways: augmented rhythms, pitches set out in series, order of pitches rearranged, stacked, and expanded. The increasing frequency of changes in mood of Memory On Circles reflects the alternating personality disorder of Schumann as portrayed in author Andrew Crumey’s novel Mobius Dick, however, Crumey’s significant influence on Memory On Circles is in regard to structure. Although Mobius Dick consists of four independent plotlines, the overall structure is based on the model of a Möbius strip. The particularly interesting aspect I found of Crumey’s novel is that even though within each plotline there is development towards a conclusion, which suggests a linear structure, there is also evidence of an infinite loop structure. Memory On Circles develops in a similar manner: the extracted and altered material from Kreisleriana is subjected to Duras’s process and concludes in the final section of the third movement which simultaneously functions as an introduction to the opening bars of Memory On Circles