Patterns in a Heptatonic Field (2017-2019)
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 4: No 9
Venancio Mbande in memoriam
Composed August - December 2011, Visby-Paris-Prague-Hout Bay; revised September 2017 - 30 December 2019, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1284 (Volume 4 Complete)
Duration: 5 minutes
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano (UK première)
Programme note
Patterns in a Heptatonic Field started as a solo xylophone piece in 2011 before being transcribed as a solo piano a few years later. The music explores all kinds of melodic and rhythmic patterns, with some passages in 5/16. The title references Morton Feldman’s ‘Patterns in a Chromatic Field’. In honour of Venancio Mbande, the ‘cadential figures’ that mark the endings of the main sections of the piece, are quotations from timbila music
for solo piano
Afrikosmos Volume 4: No 9
Venancio Mbande in memoriam
Composed August - December 2011, Visby-Paris-Prague-Hout Bay; revised September 2017 - 30 December 2019, Saint-Léger-Magnazeix
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Score BDE 1284 (Volume 4 Complete)
Duration: 5 minutes
Recording
Recorded by Antony Gray on 'Michael Blake: Afrikosmos’ (Divine Art DA 21374)
Première
First performance: 22 September 2022; Chisholm Recital Room, Cape Town; Antony Gray piano
Further performance: 21 June 2023; Goldsmiths College London; Antony Gray piano (UK première)
Programme note
Patterns in a Heptatonic Field started as a solo xylophone piece in 2011 before being transcribed as a solo piano a few years later. The music explores all kinds of melodic and rhythmic patterns, with some passages in 5/16. The title references Morton Feldman’s ‘Patterns in a Chromatic Field’. In honour of Venancio Mbande, the ‘cadential figures’ that mark the endings of the main sections of the piece, are quotations from timbila music
