TRILOGUS (2008)

In addition, the first and third songs of the trilogy finish on an almost identical perfect fifth, in accordance with mediaeval ideas of perfection in a closing chord. These anachronistic touches, however, are counterweighted by a melodic invention that makes liberal use of the intervals and gestures of modern writing, and a harmonic style that sees the voices predominantly winding mysteriously about each other in dissonant clusters.

Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke

Set to a Latin text and notated in the square neumes of the late middle ages, the TRILOGUS is a set of three movements for three sopranos. The work is an extensive and considered confrontation of the antique with the modern, containing extensive passages of single melodic lines, reminiscent of Gregorian chant, at times even to the point of diatonic simplicity, evoking the mediaeval church modes in amongst the prevailing chromaticism. Even when the voices diverge from one another, they tend to hold to a common rhythm, giving the impression of organum, the very earliest form of vocal music to incorporate more than one voice. In addition, the first and third songs of the trilogy finish on an almost identical perfect fifth, in accordance with mediaeval ideas of perfection in a closing chord. These anachronistic touches, however, are counterweighted by a melodic invention that makes liberal use of the intervals and gestures of modern writing, and a harmonic style that sees the voices predominantly winding mysteriously about each other in dissonant clusters.

Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke