Aftermaths

3.3.3.3 4.3.3.1 Timp. 2Perc. Hp. Strings (14.12.10.8.6)

Programme Note

Aftermaths weaves around the reverberations that pitches and gestures leave behind. Chords are built, sustained and interrupted. Melodies are nonexistent, but still they try to appear and sing. It is a sonic representation of a shadow, without seeing what is blocking the light.

Originally, I wrote Aftermaths as a student and recently began to realise, almost a decade later, that the same preoccupations appear in my music and felt that the piece needed revisiting. This current version is larger and clearer in my intention, but still retains the youthful idealism of my 20-year-old self. The first draft of this piece carried the subtitle ‘why did you close your eyes when you reached the top of the mountain?’, which was removed before completion, but is a phrase that I still think of most days in my life.

Liam Mattison (London, Nov 2018)