Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Chime was initially conceived around a rigid structure of number combinations using the numbers. Using number combinations in the construction of music is uncommon in my work. I was curious to explore the effect of combining irregular (less commonly used) note lengths with regular bar lengths. (In this case the irregular note lengths 1, 3, 5, 7 combine into a regular bar length containing 16 quavers or 8 pulses in a bar). Once I established the strict structure of the music, I then modified it to bring a more personalised and less robotic feel to the rhythm and harmony.
In te revised 2014 edition of Chime, the rhythm is doubled so that each note is twice as long, but the speed is also twice as fast so that it should sound the same as the 2006 edition. It was originally written in 16/8 with all notes occurring on one line, but in this edition it is written in 4/4 time, with notes separated into left and right hand staves. This was all done to simplify the readability of the music. A few changes have also been made to the harmony.

Work Details

Year: 2006

Instrumentation: Piano.

Duration: 5 min.

Difficulty: Medium — AMEB Grade 7.

First performance: by Lindsay Gilroy — 10 Feb 06. Music Workshop, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

Work revised 2014