My mutable piece “a small piece of sky” is being performed this Friday and Saturday as part of the CORE series. The series is a collaborative effort by the Saskatoon Symphony core players and Paved Arts, a new media artist-run centre. The concerts are of live new contemporary music paired with pieces of video art and short films. The series has become popular enough that now they do two nights of shows every few months instead of one night.

“a small piece of sky” was originally written for three voices to be performed live in a walking procession as part of some out-of-doors choreography by Jackie Latendresse of Free Flow Dance Theatre. Then it was performed with the dancers accompanied by the Mysterium Choir (which I was directing at the time). This current iteration will be performed on flute, oboe, viola, bassoon, and double bass with a short film by Jennifer Sparrowhawk.

The piece is mutable in that it can be performed by any number of players on any type of intstruments, and the performers decide in which order they want to play the melodic phrases, how many times to repeat those phrases, and if they want to vary them by speed (in half or double time) or by adding improvised melismatic touches within the phrases.

So yes, the piece sounds slightly different each time.

I heard this version and saw Jennifer’s film for the first time tonight. And I must say that I was immensely pleased with the result!

(A funny coincidence: Right before this tech rehearsal I was at Free Flow Dance Theatre to offer some feedback on their newest piece. Their newest ensemble member is also in Jennifer’s film!)