Khreia

First Prize, Stavanger Nordic Symphony Competition (2002)

This orchestra piece is a composition of a series of instantiations of an abstract model. This model is taken as the musical ‘khreia’ that will be expanded several times during the course of the piece. The model is divided into three parts of equal length and two shorter segments that link the parts together. The segments are simple: always a held sound, in the high register or in the low. The parts contain the main activity, generated from clashes and constructions of the musical material in continuously changing caleïdoscopic constellations. The modules are driven by a limited set of basic music materials: a forward-driving agglomeration of gestures, mainly presented in the strings and horns; a backward-leaning series of held chords, mainly presented in trumpets and trombones; a static, insistent and oblique rhythms that come in two versions: one in the very low register, the other in the very high register. The local interaction gives rise to continuous variation of the material, but the nature of the material stays the same throughout. More importantly, when the instantiations of the model become longer, there is increasingly more room given for secondary elements. In addition to the basic material, there are “accidental” gestures, or ‘intrusions’, that are reflecting the structure of a certain part if it had been in another constellation of modules than the present. These gestures are, as it were, remnants of things that have happened elsewhere or are about to come alive shortly. The structure of intrusions is consistent throughout and the modules are in equal relationship to each other in the different instantiations. The instantiations are congruent, i.e. their inner structure stays the same. Effectively, the only thing that substantially changes is duration. The listener is thus invited to alternate the attention between what is happening at local level (short time-spans), or, if in a more distracted mood, at global level,(long time-spans) considering the overall shape of “khreia”.

• khreia for orchestra [3333-4331-2perc-hp-strings]. 2002. Duration 12 minutes. First performed by Stavanger Symphony Orchestra 17 October 2002 in the Orchestra Hall, Stavanger, Norway and broadcast live by the Norwegian Radio. Published by Norwegian Music Information Centre (www.nmic.no). Registered with TONO (www.tono.no) Norwegian performing rights society. All rights reserved.

“The early sophists introduced exercises in composition and for the first time encouraged some originality on the part of the students (…) Chreia, or anecdote, [is] defined as ‘a brief reminiscence referring to some person in a pithy form’. It is called chreia because it is chreiodes, (morally) useful.” [George A. Kennedy: ‘A new History of Classical Rhetoric’, pg 202-4, Princeton University Press 1994.]
“Chreia, or anecdote, [is] one of the most widespread literary forms in Greek and Latin literature. It was used primarily to express and preserve the wit, wisdom, and memorable actions of philosophers, kings, generals, Spartans, even prostitutes. For example, Diogenes the Cynic philosopher, on seeing a young boy misbehaving, struck the boy’s pedagogue and said, “Why are you teaching such things?” . The popularity of the chreia is explained in part by its brevity and fixed form that made it easy to remember.” [Ronald F. Hock & Edward N. O’Neil: ‘The Chreia and Ancient Rhetoric and Education Project’, http://www.cgu.edu/inst/iac/chreia.html, June 2002.]