Líofa (Flowing)

The idea behind a lot of my music is flux, but in this piece a quote from "Finnegans Wake" provided the initial impulse: "The untireties of livesliving being the one substrance of a streamsbecoming" (James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, p. 597.) The opening chaos is notated at half note = 56, but is polytemporal, with music at four different speeds in four different registers which gradually converge, finally attaining the relative stillness of the second section (half note = 48). This is a soundpool, expanding and then contracting, enclosing itself, dramatic, yet calm. The constrained register of the end of the second section provides the kick-off for the thrusting eddies of the ensuing turbulence (quarter note = 126) which builds over and over until the final, rhythmically simple, section (half note = 35). The material I use is subjected to various simple operations which are then repeated to generate families of related material, one family for each of the four sections of the piece.