A composition portfolio : handling technique, expression and form

Abstract

This portfolio of compositions highlights my compositional approach to four contrasting music works. Through this body of work the handling of technique, expression and form will be explored, together with the roles of context, pre-compositional and compositional processes. The first composition presented here is O salutaris Hostia for SATB choir a cappella. Based on the well-known eucharistic hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, the main melody of the piece originates from the original Gregorian chant setting of the same hymn in the Liber Usualis of the Roman Catholic liturgy. It then develops into a choral piece which intertwines modal and tonal melodies and harmonies, and also monophonic, homophonic and polyphonic textures. The second composition is a string quartet entitled Ilwien Maltin or Maltese Colours, divided in three movements. The variety of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic material used in these movements depicts in an abstract manner three different ilwien (colours): ikħal (blue), griż (grey) and aħdar (green). The colours reflect the moods and feelings in the context of the Maltese backdrop and environment. Each movement is constructed in a different form and the tematic material is in the contemporary idiom with interchanges of tonal and atonal themes and the use of microtones. The third piece Roima for orchestra is a short musical narrative of a programmatic nature. Rhythm and harmony convey the narrative of a woman’s life highlights from childhood to adulthood, through the ups and downs of personal and family life. A leitmotif represents Roima through the one-movement work and various idiomatic techniques like pentatonic vii scales and dodecaphonic tone rows are used around the leitmotif to create the particular stage of the narration. The final piece combines orchestral and choral forces in a Missa Brevis for SATB and chamber orchestra. Its sombre ‘Kyrie Eleison’, joyous ‘Gloria’, solemn ‘Sanctus’ and meditative ‘Agnus Dei’ are composed in a straight-forward manner, without extra complexity to maintain the ‘brevis’ character of the mass. At the same time the composition challenges both orchestra and choir through its rhythmic structures and contrasting harmonies. The ‘Gloria’ and the ‘Sanctus’ contain also stylised Gregorian chant, short passages of organum and imitative polyphony.