'Rowing Out' - please read More tab

Описание: Dedicated to the memory of my revered composition teacher, Professor Alexander (Sandy) Goehr, 1932-2024.

This composition strictly employs the technique of twelve tone serialism - a revolutionary system created by the Austrian composer, Arnold Schönberg, and his contemporaries, in the 1920s. Each of the twelve pitches of the western chromatic scale is positioned once only in an unchanging sequence or "row". This is repeated throughout in all instrumental lines. The only permitted variants are reversed and inverted rows. As all tones were treated equally, it was known as a "democratic" approach, in rejection of the conventional, hierarchical tonal system. As an extension of atonality (no key relationships), it overturned the established tradition of harmonic chordal progression, now known as functional tonality. Some audiences still find it challenging to listen to today. However, Schönberg and his followers used it as an alternative structural unifier, producing many great works.

It’s an interesting test to make a satisfying composition in this method. I was taught it by the dedicatee, whose father, Walter Goehr, studied with Schönberg himself.

The piece features a slow, stabilizing cantus firmus version of the row, alongside higher tempo ones. It represents the deep sea.

All sounds are produced by a single Apple iOS Garageband audio sample library - Distance: 0 - developed by Peter Flint, playing in Decent Sampler. An analogue synthesizer from 1978 was sampled and the results formed into smooth, evolving, granular "pads". And from these I’ve made my mix.

We row out on the ocean, with seagulls flying across overhead. We sink down into deep swells. On the seabed, lobsters and clams chatter and above us, message bottles chink as they float by. We rise again and, traversed by seagulls, row back to shore.