related works
Phases of the Wind : Suite for band / Douglas Knehans
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Wind ensemble (13 or more players)
Scoring:
2fl 2cl cl-b sax-a sax-t sax-bar h 2tpt 2trb euph tb timp 6perc
Oblation : opus 54, for organ, 2 trumpets, 2 horns and 2 trombones, 1985 / Jo van den Booren
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
2h 2trp 2trb org
Inflections : for ensemble / Chiel Meijering
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
fl cl sax-a eb acc
Hinge : for ensemble, 1996 / Kazuhiko Suzuki
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
fl cl trp hp pf vl vla vc
composition
Transparent Waves : for two pianos and two percussionists / Douglas Knehans
Other authors:
Knehans, Douglas
(Composer)
Description:
Transparent Waves is formed in three movements: Shrouded Wave,
Luminous Wave and Coruscating Wave.
"Shrouded Wave" is a kind of loose chaconne whose veiled repetition of the initial section forms the basis for the work. Sometimes this initial idea is repeated entirely, sometimes it is added to and sometimes truncated while at other times expanded and all of the time at close interplay with the freely evolving interchange between all of the instruments. The movement is dark, dense and passionate and forms the deepest part of the three movement work.
"Luminous Wave" is a cooler, more transparent and more freely formed structure whose loose correlations tie section to section in a lighter and less dense atmosphere than the first movement.
"Coruscating Wave" is a kind of moto perpetuo that is at once brilliant and virtuosic yet also colorful, bright and sometimes surprising. It is loosely based around a small collection of ideas that recur in contextually related ways that are nonetheless always varied and bring the whole work to a vibrant and dramatic conclusion.
Transparent Waves is really about sea-based clouded mists and wavelets and how these are sometimes dark and almost impenetrable to light, reflective and brilliant. This serves as a metaphor for me of a type of human consciousness and how things are clear or murky to us in mixtures—sometimes equal, frequently unequal—which creates the mystery and magic of life and its waves of experiences.
Douglas Knehans