Hatzis wrote Phosphorus soon after the death of his wife's nephew Cameron. Dedicated to Cameron's memory, this mysterious yet playful work sees two musical characters engage in a virtual conversation with each other. One, a quiet lament-like harmonic sequence for the marimba, the other consisting of samples taken from Cameron's DJ mix also titled Phosphorus. These two seemingly incongruous forms of musical expression enter a push-and-pull dialogue in Phosphorus, in which the marimbist must navigate a series of metric modulations accompanied by eerie electronic ambience, pulses of synthesized pitches and samples of Cameron's "phosphorus" chants and electronic hooks.
Born in Greece, educated in the United States and a Canadian citizen since 1985, composer Christos Hatzis (b.1953) is becoming widely known as a leading figure in contemporary classical music. His works are performed and broadcast throughout the world, and their frequent combination of a powerful spiritual foundation with an immediately accessible appeal has made a deep emotional impact upon audiences and performers alike.
