brim, veer (2014)

bass trombone and two percussionists

Sept. 13, 2014. Salle Multimédia, Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.

Felix del Tredici, bass trombone; Matthias Soly-Letarte and David Brongo, percussion

The title brim, veer is a combination of a noun and a verb (in this context), in which the former expresses a state and the latter, an action. The relationship between the noun and the verb serves to underline the dialectic between timelessness and impermanence in this piece. The word, brim, refers to the state of being in proximity to an existing boundary; this state is expressed in the observation of extremely delicate sounds that lie on the threshold of audibility. The word, veer, refers to the act of changing direction; in this piece, the ambiguity of directionality is expressed in the constantly shifting phrase lengths and in the contrasts between periodicity and aperiodicity. Furthermore, the word, veer, signifies an attempt to present contrasting temporalities, specifically, between metrical time and chronometrical time.