Schism )) Pier (2021) for strings

Listen to excerpts (Trondheim Soloists):
Tyler Futrell · Schism )) Pier - excerpts


Schism )) Pier is in two very contrasting movements describing an aesthetic, cultural & historical divide I have struggled to unify for many years. In the score, I characterize this divide as (1) “future, father, West (passing fire)”; (2) “past, mother, East (worshipping ashes)”. (The parenthetical aside refers to a quote that Mahler liked, that tradition is not worshipping ashes, but passing the flame.) As to this extreme, possibly irreconcilable divide, some coherence is attempted through wave imagery and structures, as well as use of the minor third. Nevertheless, the contrast is left mostly naked, merely described, not reconciled.

Schism )) Pier was commissioned by The Trondheim Soloists as part of Music Norway’s KUPP program.