Matthew Rowan - Composer

2006 --
for chamber orchestra

Reverberations is a texture-based composition that consists of three separate aspects: transformation, spatial effects, and two related compositional techniques. The main approach to composing Reverberations was to treat the creation and arrangement of the music as if an ensemble had already recorded the ‘pre-existing’ composition. This approach was challenging because it involved two simultaneous processes that, in an audio production studio, would otherwise be consecutive: the creation of the material and then the post-production of the material. The structure of Reverberations is that of a transformation from individual, irregular, spacious sounds to a collective, repetitive motif. The idea of transformation in this instance originated from Sky and Water I, a woodcut print by M.C. Escher, where fish gradually transform into the sky and birds gradually transform into the sea. The textures of Reverberations exist in different spaces, an illusion made possible by the interpretation of artificial audio spatial effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, and stereo field placement. While composing the music of Reverberations the artificial spatial effects needed to be considered, not only as secondary aspects of a sound but also as important sounds themselves; this in turn produced multiple textures. The spatial effects textures were achieved by the application of two compositional techniques – pointillism and hocketing – and can be heard throughout Reverberations either individually or collectively. Pointillism and hocketing were used to give the impression that notes and phrases move positions within the acoustic stereo field of the ensemble, to simulate reverb, delay and chorus effects, and to provide textural distinction between the different stages of the transformation in Reverberations