Convergence

Convergence is a psychoacoustic work. Just as a healthy human eye can distinguish millions of different shades of light, Convergence expresses the countless timbres and colours created by simultaneous tones, that is, intervals and chords. Traditional Western art music is largely based on twelve predetermined pitches. However, in Convergence the tuning is microtonally continuous, meaning that the harmonies and sonorities it enables are, in theory, infinite.

Three pitch frequencies, defined by a precisely interpolated mathematical function, drift very slowly through the soundspace over the course of fifteen minutes — first toward each other, and then gradually apart again after coming together in a ephemeral but powerful moment of unity. The tones at times waver, merge, beat, bark, buzz, and ripple, depending on their pitch and configuration. While any listener might delight in the endless palette of colors reflected by light and sound, a trained ear can also discern familiar sonorities and intervals along the way, major and minor triads and fragments of the harmonic series.

The sound material consists of synthetic sound, human voice, the patter of rain and birdsong, as well as the tone of tubular bells, all electronically processed using a computer program developed by the composer. The visual element is a laser beam projected onto a cloud of mist, at times resembling visual  space-time models familiar from physics.

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Missa euphonia iuventutis

festival mass for choir, orchestra, percussion ensemble and organ