Sculpting and Refining, a cross synthesis in Amphora (Sarah Westwood)

Sculpting and Refining, a cross synthesis in Amphora
 Amphora, n. 
1. an ancient Greek jar or vase with a large oval body, narrow cylindrical neck, and two handles that rise almost to the level of the mouth broadly : such a jar or vase used elsewhere in the ancient world
2. a 2-handled vessel shaped like an amphora 
 For the upcoming Illuminate concert, my piece Amphora for bass clarinet, violin and cello will be performed as part of the RCM Chamber Music Festival 2019.

Amphora are vessels dating back to the Neolithic period and also had been made for Ancient Greek vase painting. They were used for the everyday and rituals, prizes and for funery practices.

I had been working with pottery in previous pieces, including using various size clay pots as resonant speakers- in Cable Veins, for piano and electronics; Chalk.Body.Barrowelectronics for dance, and Rare Earth installation (work in progress). Whilst working physically with pottery, I wanted to focus on their tactile quality; the weighted and earthy and fragile and ancient qualities, to embody these in sound. The idea of writing Amphora began here.

​At the same time, my compositions encompass other impetuses, and I am often drawn to dance (which I discussed in my previous post for Illuminate) or poetry, and I blend these with my sketches - sculpting, juxtaposing and refining original designs for the piece. 
 
I’ve used the poetry of Georgie Lorimer as a catalyst for a few pieces, including Amphora and it falls within a triptych of works I am basing on Lorimer’s poetry: The Artist’s Kintsukuroi  
 
1)    Into the Blank Expanse of Space for bass flute, piano and electronics
2)    Amphora for bass clarinet, violin and cello
3)    The Artist’s Kintsukuroi for septet, narrator and conductor 
 
for Amphora: 
 
it was autumn when we kissed
that first time             after one
last summer storm on the beach
 
hair plastered against your face
and     disfigured with sandwe
were hideous as tempests
battering into the cave
 
maybe if we’d stayed for more
than that moment we’d have been
trapped forever         much later
 
i danced a fresh edge of sea
until even the soft shush
je t’aime   je t’aime   je t’aime   left
my leaps sinking into sand
 
‘Cross-synthesis’
 
After developing these thoughts, a ‘cross-synthesis’happens where phrases, or larger structures, could have started as an embodiment of pottery which are then co-mingled with the poetry ideas, or vice versa. Once I have refined a section, the original meaning and ideas are hidden and transformed. In electronic music, the cross-synthesis occurs when spectral data is applied from one sound to another in order to create a hybrid sound, or a transition from one sound to another. I wanted to use this process in an acoustic setting - and so I imagined the cross synthesis firstly occurring in a short, exclamatory motif. 
 
I then abstracted this motif, supporting it with different pressure, resistance, harmonics, multiphonics and pulsating vibrato and tremolo, always striving to sculpt the poetry and pottery together. I also endeavoured to blend an embodied sense of the pottery and poetry with the spiritual.
 
 
Example:  [ https://soundcloud.com/sarahewestwood/amphora-extract/s-hTvVh]  
 
Amphora extract, Heather Roche (clarinet), Patrick Dawkins (violin), Valerie Welbanks (cello) Deptford Town Hall, London. May, 2018. 
 
 
To hear the please in full, come to the concert on 16 Feb!
 
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Photo credits: 
1) Guillaume Baviere
Creative Commons: Attribution, ShareAlike.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/84554176@N00/11736244906/in/album-72157644546914693/
 
2) Sarah Westwood, personal photo of the ocean

You can now support Illuminate 2019 Season I and II activities!