Circumnutation

AT THE START of 2022, I composed a short piece for piano constructed from descending diatonic scales and the 15 partitions of the integer 7. This invention would inspire me to write more inventions. These Fifteen Inventions correspond to each of the 15 partitions and, as such, have between 1 and 7 strands or voices. Each invention explores ways of permuting and separating the diatonic collection, creating many types of musical expressions within a consistent language. Occasionally, vague references to tonal idioms arise from the obsessive circulation of diatonic material. The word Circumnutation comes from botany and describes the helical motion of growing stems and tendrils, a process whose reason has long been debated as either an endogenous action, an exogenous reaction to stimuli, or some combination of the two. I worked on these inventions for over a year, and I feel a connection between the process of design and discovery throughout this period and the cultivation of a garden.