Liber Pulveris

With this virtuoso solo piece, I have endeavored to capture a rhythmic element from my language as an improviser—an energetically vibrating rhythmic surface that grooves without falling into a clear meter or pulse. The notation features a high degree of rhythmic precision characteristic of some very rationally-conceived modernist compositions, but it is deployed to facilitate the gradual emergence of a feelingful groove from this percolating rhythmic surface. Non-octave scales are derived from jazz chords and idiomatic melodic motifs, and transformed through algorithmic procedures. Though quite short, this high-density and high-intensity composition encapsulates many of my compositional interests to date.

The Liber pulveris is one of four Latin translations from the twelfth century of Kitab al jami’ wa’l tafriq bi hisab al hind (The Book of Addition and Subtraction According to the Hindu Calculation) by ninth–century Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. In this text, known only through these Latin translations, Al-Khwarizmi instructs on the use of the nine-digit system of numerals, inherited from India, for mathematical computation. The title of Liber pulveris refers to the method of inscribing calculations into sand or dust spread on a board, which was widely practiced in India and in the Arab empire before the use of paper become ubiquitous. These ‘ghubar’ (dust) numerals, made their way to the West through these Latin translations, where they were referred to as algorismi, and are now called Arab numerals.

Liber Pulveris was commissioned by Colin McAllister.

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