Slippery Music

Notes

Slippery Music was written in the spring of 2010 for the Schubert Ensemble who premiered the piece on 6th July 2010 at the Cheltenham International Music Festival. The work is dominated by two types of material which appear in various guises through the pieceʼs duration. The first appears at the very beginning of the piece and is marked ‘obsessive and neurotic’ while the second idea appears immediately afterwards and is ‘twitchy and playful’. The piece is a slippery ride between these two states. There is also a slipperiness to the pieceʼs textures which aim to create a sense of a surface that is difficult to walk upon. Glissandi and other string-playing techniques are exploited to create this sensation.