I wrote this in my final year at university. After the difficulties of the large ensemble compositions I had done the previous year, I wanted to do a big work with a small number of people. This made a rehearsal a snap, they should tell you this stuff in composition school but I had to find out the hard way.
I also wanted to explore rhythm and percussion in conjunction with electronics…and more specifically digital audio. I didn’t have a lot of experience with recording at the time and didn’t really know where to start so I made a single recording of the word “finished”. I then used the school’s studio to make hundreds of sounds for the peace. Lourie Radford really guided me on this one helping avoid the mistakes of an earlier composition.
The work is all about the interaction between the very simple one performer percussion set up of 4 toms and a pitched timpani. I had the performer, Nicholas Jacques, play all parts of the timpani while I manned the audio system for this recording. Its a large work of over 10 minutes and the electro acoustic material is swelling and filled the hall. One of my more successful compositions, it was programmed last and immediately brought forward commissions I never accepted.