entropy V

entropy V explores the idea of a vision of degradation, followed by a snap back to reality with different feelings. I was inspired by ideas of visions portrayed in the film Twilight and various biblical books, and therefore set out to create a musical “vision” of similar nature. 

Thinking visually, I thought of the music in terms of colour and intensity. As lucid dreams and visions are almost never straightforward and comprehensible, I disrupted the linearity of development towards darkness and intensity - different sections have different permutations of each, creating “false climaxes” and “false endings”.

Colour is varied through modal brightness, overall register, and frequency of cinematic sub-booms. (The low range of the keyboard patch was substituted for cinematic sub-booms as an additional layer and to further enhance immersiveness and intensity.) Intensity is varied through dynamics, muddiness (buildup of sound from sustaining the pedal!), and the harshness of timbre. This, being my first work using a solo bassoon, explores unique techniques to create extra harshness, such as Berio tremolo and multiphonic trills.

To create a dreamy feel, I made the keyboardist and pianist hold down the sustaining pedal, and added long delays and reverbs to the keyboard patch, both of which achieve sonorous and sustained rather than percussive sounds. Taking this even further, I explored the opposite end of harshness at the end, with plucked piano strings, and resonant microtonal chords created through an LFO on Fine Tuning.