"The aim is to sound like a flock of birds conversing with one another." – Vincent Ho
Inspired by Terry Riley's pioneering In C, Ho's take on indeterminacy is built from a collection of musical "cells" (short melodic fragments) set in the key of C major. Written for any number or combination of instruments, the beauty of Terry's Whimsical Dream lies in its performative freedom and unpredictability, with no two performances sounding alike. Following a simple percussion pulse, the performers play each cell as many times as they choose, creating a multitude of interlocking individual voices. Snippets of conversation briefly emerge from the overall texture before somebody changes the subject and another voice catches one's ear above the din.
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic there was a need for compositions that were adaptable to any instrumentation. A number of works were written to fulfill this need, such as Frank Ticheli's In C Dorian and Thomas Adés' Dawn. This concept was new to me and I was inspired to try my hand at it. As a starting point, I turned to Terry Riley's famous work In C as a model. Riley's piece represents the musical concept known as indeterminacy, where various aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's choice. This provides great flexibility in many areas Рdynamics, duration, instrumentation, etc.
Similar to Riley's work, I created my own collection of musical "cells" and cast them in the key of C major (with some cells using chromatic inflections). My piece differs from Riley's in that I used many of the bird-like motifs and gestures I had been developing in my Whimsical Sketches of Fanciful Birds series. Thus, this work is my own take on indeterminacy, inspired by Riley's In C, but expressed in my own way using motifs that evoke a gathering of birds.
I dedicate this work to Frank Ticheli, whose own composition In C Dorian inspired me to follow this creative direction, and to Mathew S. James (Artistic Director of Timepoint Ensemble) for commissioning this work.
