Symphony Orchestra (in progress)

Tonus Contra Tonum, a work for symphony orchestra is still a work in progress. The work gradually builds up the atmosphere of a musical ritual through the interplay of solo percussion and orchestra. The percussion mallet, tuned instruments, drums and gongs reinforce this growth and decline of musical material through the timbral reinforcement of individual orchestral groups.

As of now, only first two sections and a part of the third section have been completed. The first 8 minutes of the work comprise of these sections:

Fast, ceremonial, and with a sense of awe
Solemn
Fast and exuberant (incomplete)

The title for this work comes as homage to the remarkable theoretical work by a German composer, conductor, music theorist, and string player, Paul Hindemith (1895-1963). His theoretical concepts, especially those on composition and analysis, have proven to be an inspiration in my work as a composer. Similar to the 14th century idea of punctus contra punctum, Lat. “point against point”, or in musical terms – note against note, Tonus Contra Tonum refers to the complex way in which tones and harmonies relate to each other. In a way similar to Hindemith’s theoretical concepts, I created an idiosyncratic harmonic language based on the percepts of sonance and its ramifications of melodic, rhythmic, and tonal music structures.