Andrew Schultz: Silk Canons

Abstract

Silk Canons is a single movement piece based on a brief duet for two sopranos, bass clarinet, vibraphone and double bass. The duet, called Silk, was a setting of an anonymous Chinese poem: When you sat in your dark chair Ripe with fat fruits of yellow and red silk Alive with blue lithe animals. Pressing your scented rose-ended Peach-coloured feet against my face, I was humiliated, as you desired. The original duet was only four minutes long; in building on the original material, Silk Canons adds a lot of new music and elaborates the idea of interwoven duet lines over a repetitive harmony. The ensemble of two flutes, two bass clarinets, piano and vibraphone is used in a series of episodic duets and full instrumental refrains. The harmonic structure and melodic possibilities of the original are also greatly expanded by the continuous counterpoint between the equal voice parts.