Draumr

Notes

Draumr is comprised of three sections designed to be excerpted from a larger work: Hrið – Móðr – Ljómi. This work was composed in the Fall of 2013 and is dedicated to my long-time collaborator and friend, guitarist Michael Kudirka, as a tribute to his virtuosity and artistry. The three sections of Draumr each depict a different image of the sea, and are nested within the larger work that projects one dramatic arc that creates a fantastical journey of death, set in a Scandinavian landscape, and engages the question of afterlife:

Draumr [Dream]:

I.   Svarti Sæ [Black Sea]

II.  Blakkr Straumr [Dark Current]

III. Svalbarð [The Cold Edge]

Several devices are used to project the large-scale formal design such as a constant isomorphic rhythmic and formal talea (a number series that is reflected kaleidoscopically in the foreground, middleground, and background), the development of melodic motives, and dramatic dynamic contrasts and returns. Various types of pitch materials are used that create the harmonic language including non-octavating vertical equal temperment, microtonal divisions of equal temperment (third-tones and quarter-tones), both overtone and undertone tunings, synthetic “fake” overtone and undertone series, and inexact microtonalities such as glissandi. These various harmonic languages create multiplicities of timbre that alternate, interact, return and disappear.