Login

Enter your username and password

Forgotten your username or password?

Your Shopping Cart

There are no items in your shopping cart.

Work

Lines at Infinity : for string orchestra

by Chris Williams (2016)

Lines at infinity

$44.55

Add to cart

Score

Lines at infinity : for string orchestra / Chris Williams.

Library shelf no. 784.7/WIL 8 [Available for loan]

Lines at infinity

Hire Only

This item is available from our hire library.
Please contact our Hire Department to enquire about pricing and obtain this item.

Work Overview

Lines at Infinity continues an obsession I have with basic musical shapes - gestures - and an endless fascination with the expressive possibilities of single lines, be they musical, visual, or mathematical. The 'line at infinity' is the line of points at which parallel lines meet, an apparent paradox that can nonetheless be easily understood intuitively. A vanishing point on the horizon of an image can be thought of as a point 'at infinity', the horizon is a line of such points at which, for example, train tracks appear to converge, though they remain in parallel. It is a beautiful perceptual paradox.

Lines at Infinity grows out of two melodic lines, first heard in the violins. They are actually the same line, though at different speeds and alignments, and they repeatedly converge despite being 'in parallel'. Similarly, the piece, in two distinct halves, also converges. Just as the second musical idea establishes itself, we hear it transformed, revealing its relationship to the same, simple, descending line which has absorbed the entire first half of the piece. This simple descending line finally turns into a restless, relentlessly ascending line, before seeming to disappear, converging 'at infinity'.

Work Details

Year: 2016

Instrumentation: Strings

Duration: 12 min.

Difficulty: Medium

Dedication note: Dedicated to David Angell

Commission note: Commissioned by David Angell.

First performance: by Bourbaki Ensemble, David Angell at Lines at infinity: music for strings (St Stephen's Church, Newtown) on 4 Dec 2016

The composer has noted the following styles, subjects and influences associated with this work:
geometry, Ralph Vaughan Williams

Performances of this work

4 Dec 2016: at Lines at infinity: music for strings (St Stephen's Church, Newtown). Featuring Bourbaki Ensemble, David Angell.

User reviews

Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this work.

To post a comment please login.