A Progression of Combinatorics (flute and guitar), 2008 [3’15”]

Program notes

This duet for flute and guitar was composed by using the techniques of serialism. The music begins with a hexachord [bB--B-C-#F-#G-A], which is represented by the series [0, 1, 2, 8, 10, 11]. The subsequent development utilizes combinations from the hexachord. The progression evolves by applying operations such as transposition, inversion, and retrograde. One voice uses repeated single notes to sustain the tone and to increase the tension of phrasing. The other voice consists of chords played with pizzicato and arpeggio at syncopated or irregular rhythms. The two voices switch between the flute and the guitar as the music progresses. The two instruments interact dynamically and complementarily in time and in space.