Hivemind

Hivemind was commissioned by the Sydney Conservatorium Wind Symphony for the inaugural Estivo Festival in Verona, Italy, in July 2014. It is a fast-paced, single-movement work that develops thematic material through musical consensus-building. Scattered motives and fragments gradually come together into more cohesive units. Melodies emerge from buzzing textures, trying to make sense of conflicting harmonies. Instruments imitate each other in different ways, until they finally agree on how the music goes, in the more climactic moments of the piece. The ensemble is grounded by two percussionists, each with economical and identical instrument setups, who constantly bounce rhythms back and forth from the far sides of the stage (until they, also, coalesce into unity). I like to think of the resulting antiphony between percussionists (and other instrument groups as well) as a conversation between the left-brain and right-brain a spacial and musical dialogue that reinforces the dichotomy between what is structured and what is free; what is anticipated and what is surprising; and between what is cerebral and what is emotive. It was composed at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., in the spring of 2014, and is dedicated to conductor John P. Lynch.