Ritual Music

for oboe, bassoon, viola, and piano
1995
6 minutes

This piece was written in response to my first hearing of Korean court music, and is also strongly influenced by the compositions of Morton Feldman. In this piece I employ the idea of structural melody which is the basis of many Asian musics, where different instruments embellish the same basic melody in different ways. In this piece, however, the structural melody, in addition to being embellished, is related at different speeds by the different instruments, thus forming a mensuration canon. This piece should have the feeling of a music whose ritual role has been abandoned by a changing society, played with reverence but not relevance. I intend this piece not as a lament for, but simply a contemplation of such music as it is practiced today.

17×11 PDF score
$10

All scores are published by