Gibbons, Gongs, and Gamelan (©2008) [5:25]

 

This work unites several ideas touching upon Orlando Gibbons’ (1583-1625) fragmented keyboard work The woods so wilde.  Although the structuring of this new piece embodies some rigorous workings, conjoining early music with Fractal geometry, its overall temperament is somewhat spontaneous, evoking in my mind playful -if not fantastical- imagery.  Gibbons here as nimble primates playing through episodes whose sounds (because of the music’s recursive growth) are so closely allied to gamelan (and non-Western) textures.  They also exist, not in a jungle, but a temperate fantastic forest, woods so wilde.  This work, for me, also captures a celebratory tone in that I composed it during the Holiday week of late December 2005, when bells, gongs, and carols were in my ear.  What resulted was a strange yet joyful image:  Renaissance monkeys at play….in the woods…….at Christmas time.

Jonathan Dawe

2/16/06