Disk Horses: Fauré
Disk Horses: Fauré is a set of three miniatures. It features strong contrasts, deception, esoteric humour, and subversions of expectations. Discourses: 4a interests me as a title. It is so incredibly dry and academic, the sort of naming that gained popularity with the musical avant-garde in the ‘70s and can still be found today. I found the contrast with the notion of disk horses, (circular horses? Equine DJ’s?) which offer up more playful evocative and far less serious imagery, to be an intriguing juxtaposition. Fauré is chosen simply for its phonetic sound. The movement titles are all pronounced the same way, the multiple spellings mirroring a sort of deception and playful trickery that is key to this work. The piece combines the most rudimentary and amateurish gestures and compositional ideas with comparatively avant-garde language. It embraces material which might be considered ‘taboo’ for a composer to use (especially during the era the title references), block chords, major scales, and inane structural concepts.
The first movement consists of a barrage of chords (extended around the infuriating sonority of F over a C triad), in an unpredictable jolting rhythm. Separating these outbursts are subdued scalic ostinatos over which a ‘tempo canon’ (on a single note...) is clamoured. The piece ends abruptly.
Movement (II) is more fragmentary. Antecedent and consequent scale phrases are separated by furious exclamations of clusters, and the slow rocking gestures which follow take the piece into strange, unexpected directions.
The third movement is much sparser, and generally more subdued. It is structurally abstract, with a far less vigour, and a more desolate feeling than its predecessors, with less good humour. The piece is unceremoniously ended, blown away like a piece of litter on the breeze.
The work began life as a single piece written in December 2024 for a workshop with the Riot Ensemble. I expanded this work with additional material and restructuring, giving the work a more coherent overall impression and separating out some of the basic ideas and moods. As such, the work does not yet have a recording. It is due to be played at the summer composer concert. I have included the score and recording of the original version for the Riot Ensemble in the appendix, to give an impression of the kind of soundworld this piece inhabits.