ABSTRACT
Well, I’m fascinated by the whole notion of time in music and, in particular, by the ways in which repetition and change may occur when one shiĞs one’s aĴention away from a dialectical time (in which sounds have intentionality) towards a less goal-orientated way of construction. I would say that, in a post-Cageian (or postFeldman) world it is possible to view musical time as something other than a device which provides directionality or rhythmic impetus (and all the other rhetorical devices that this implies). For me, time can be viewed on a moment-to-moment basis as a space in which to contain musical material. I would say that my whole motivation to compose and the subsequent working methods that I’ve chosen to use have come directly from my response to that situation. If time seems suspended, or at least slowed down in my music, as you suggest, then this may be to do with the way in which I’m trying to place the material into a sort of time-continuum in which the repeated figures can be expanded, contracted or subtly varied from one moment to the next. I try to work with material that will allow for a degree of flexibility or manipulation. Working with rhythmic and melodic cycles has been the natural consequence of this approach. I try to make each cycle have an internal logic (i.e. simple repeating intervals) that is clear to the ear but then manipulate the paĴerns in a way which is disorientating to the listener. Here, I think, there is a sense of implied motion within the cycles but not of musical progress. There is more a feeling of going round in circles, literally.
