Timepiece (2023)
for piccolo, bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion // 9'
for Ensemble Offspring
as part of their Hatched Academy Program
Instrumentation
Percussion; vibraphone (with motor), glockenspiel
This work is currently unavailable as it gets edited but for more information feel free to email me
Performance history
November 11 2023
The Nielsen, ACO Pier 2/3
Ensemble Offspring Hatched Showcase
Ensemble Offspring
Video by Matt McGuigan (Hospital Hill)
About
This is a work trying to make the sound of one instrument from 6.
It plays with like and unlike textures, amongst a disparate group of instruments, and simulates multiple tempi at once to give a continuous feel of acceleration and deceleration, a sense of one instrument being played by few or many people.
It's inspired by the textural links amongst this set of instruments, the motor of the vibraphone's continuous pulse against tempo, and something Anthony Braxton spoke of in a lecture at the 2023 Darmstadt Summercourse; of music without arrival, in a constant state of becoming.
Timepiece was composed for Ensemble Offspring as part of the 2023 Hatched Composer Intensive.
Reviews
Matthew Laing’s Timepiece stood out as an experimental piece, an exploration of his quest to make the sound of one instrument from six. I think he achieved this aim remarkably well... Laing’s work invited listeners to engage in a sort of aural exploration, akin to deciphering a visual “magic eye.”