orchestra

While it is true that one of a composer’s most powerful communicative resources is the ability to engage listeners at the level of cultural resonance and reference, in my composition I try to communicate at a somewhat lower level. I wish to explore that region where the subjective and objective worlds meet, where sound as a physical phenomenon creates an almost involuntary physiological response in the listener. I dream of a harmonic syntax capable of controlling the interplay between perceived tension and resolution. I dream of the coherent interaction of all musical parameters in the service of one single expressive purpose — I dream of a musical language that is understood both in the spirit and, in the words of Merleau-Ponty, in the flesh.

Sean Ferguson

• Recording: available at SMCQ’s office