At the end of September, Thin Edge New Music Collective performed Through closed doors at the Array Space in Toronto. Ilana Waniuk and Suhashini Arulanandam did a fantastic job. Here’s the video I put together using footage by A.J. Gray and audio recordings by John. S. Gray, as well as some great photos by Terry Lim.
Now that the violin duo Through closed doors has been premiered and the music tested for errors, I have started making the final score. Drawing inspiration from medieval illuminated manuscripts, I am creating a two-colour score with large rehearsal letters built right into the wavering staves.
The first page from “Through closed doors”
I have estimated that the whole score (title page and notes included) will take up about 16 pages, so this should occupy me for the next month or so.
This work was commissioned and premiered by the Thin Edge New Music Collective.
So I’ve been planning this idea of burning musical notation onto a wooden door for over a year now (see this post). I finally got around to trying it out on a scrap piece of wood the other day. To my intense relief, it worked! Phew!
This is an excerpt drawn from my new violin duo Through closed doors. The Thin Edge New Music Collective premiered the musical portion of this piece in February. Soon I will start burning the score onto this lovely door.
I was playing around with layout while I was composing (must have ripped it all off and rearranged it at least three times). I had to make sure I didn’t compose too many “inches” for any particular section. I wanted the different sections to work with the structure of the door so that musical pauses corresponded with the physical need to walk around corners. The next step is to strip off the remaining paint and varnish (breathing in some chemical fumes for inspiration) and sand the surface to a nice, smooth finish.