The three pieces of Pacific Hockets form a typical symphonic structure with a moderately fast opening movement, a slow cantabile to follow, and a fast and lively finale. A little less usual is the downward durational spiral of durations, with the exhilarating finale less than half the length of the other two.
Each movement uses in some way the musical technique of hocketing. There is little dispute about the etymylogical connection with the modern hiccup, but considerable argument as to whether this musical practice originated from the hiccupping of drunken monks. Certainly the hocketing (breaking up and sharing) of a musical line in a manner which is likely be re-interlaced by the ear appeared in much music of the 13th and 14th centuries, and is a basic element of much music in multiple parts. In its simplest form a single melodic line breaks into two layers. I have used this 'breaking up' freely, combining with additive and subtractive processes of the sort found in many minimalist or minimalist-influenced compositions. In combination with these processes are my own favoured pitch transformations, especially 'progressive transposition' and interval multiplications.
This sharing of notes from a single melodic line between two or more parts, and this use of the process is most apparent in the first movement, Mosaic, in which most of the hocketing is drawn from fast semiquaver passages which appear many times. Exploited freely, hocketing can create various effects ranging from simple pattern exchanges to massive structures somewhat reminiscent of huge peals of bells or gongs; what is important for the composer is that rhythmic processes are set in motion which can be used as a framework for the development of the music. As the music progresses repeating patterns can be altered or notes removed to create new patterns in a sort of constantly evolving system with lots of rich and colourful possibilities for orchestral usage. Of particular importance to me are the rhythmic patterns created by the hocketed parts.
Together with fragments of a hocket-derived semiquaver web, a slower pattern of repeated octaves, first heard clearly in the harp, is repeated like a passacaglia bass but with gradual alterations which cause continuous modulation, and work towards the first main climax. A rich expansive version of this idea, a semitone lower and built from slow harp arpeggiations and bands of string glissandi, leads to a recapitulatory section which breaks down into shorter and shorter bar lengths until only the final F is left.
Although hocketing is used within the second piece, Elegy, what is most important is the slow cantabile melody with varying beat which gradually emerges as if through a mist accompanied by a simple bass line which rises in constantly expanding intervals. This melody appears in jigsaw-like fragments which gradually progress and fit together. Once the bass starts its rise the phrases of the cantabile melody constantly end on a repeated note (strong-weak) which in turn becomes the main accompaniment figure. The appearance of the melody uses another very literal type of 'hiccup' when a simple line is broken, a rhetorical repetition process where a melody gradually appears. In a recording session conductor John Hopkins suggested the melody in this movement might be quoting Dowland, composer of gloriously beautiful elegiac lute songs, but although I love the suggestion Dowland was not consciously in my mind at the time. Elegy was composed at the time of the Gulf War when daily news of war may have influenced the music to create a hymn to peace and tranquility framed by brass and percussion gestures. Bowed cymbal and tubular bells provide sonic markers in the orchestral texture, which is sparse yet rich with echoes and bell-like sounds from various instruments. There is frequent use of another 'hiccup' effect, where a short grace note (a leaning note, a short fast note falling into another) is followed not by a note but a rest, creating little whimpers of sound. A muted trumpet recalls a figure hinted at in the first movement, which increasingly becomes the main counterpoint to the thematic material as the movement progresses, and later rounds off the entire movement.
The third movement, Spiral Game, is based on repeated rhythmic patterns of two, three, or four notes which combine to make a fast and brilliantly colourful display. The music spirals through sequences where transpositions combine with attrition: typically a melody is repeated and transposed but each time it is transposed it loses a note. The hiccups here are rhythmic with repeated groups of two pulses being interrupted by groups of three and vice-versa. In particular there is a very specific spiralling-in of the numbers of repetitions so that pulse groups 12 12 12 12 12 12 123 become successively 12 12 12 12 12 123, 12 12 123, then 123 alone. As a result the music is always going round and round in similar patterns, but never going over the same territory: dancing an inward spiral to the here and now.
