Score and parts here.

Programme note:

One of the (many) great things about the Adopt-a-Composer scheme is that I was able to workshop some sketches with the NEO very early on in the development of the piece. I brought a series of little fragments that worked so well that I thought it would be interesting to create a much larger piece in a similar way: a collection of fragments, like a book of aphorisms.

This is not a new idea: much of Schumann’s piano music works in this way, and more recently the Hungarian composer Kurtág has explored the aesthetic of the fragment in various settings. It is also very much part of our modern life – the iPod on shuffle juxtaposing music with a disregard for mood, style, or quality only a machine can achieve.

However, I also wanted to explore a limited amount of material in a traditionally ‘symphonic’ way. Rather than tracing a developmental process, Mosaic presents the core material at different points in its life. One fragment is not necessarily the logical result of its neighbour, but (hopefully!) helps to create a web of relationships, building up a living 3D image from a series of static pictures. Or, using another visual analogy, many separate tiles, complete in themselves, coming together to create a larger image.

This mosaic analogy was used to create the form of the piece. Colourful fragments with much activity alternate with passages of complete stillness: a type of heard silence, or the grouting between the tiles.