Passacaglia Metamorphosis (2019)

During the 3rd year of my BMus at RCS, I was desperately searching for my own voice and I think the Passacaglia Metamorphosis is as close as I have come to achieving that. By looking at The Symphonic Movement for my research project I realised that it can be seen as a metamorphosis of the ‘expanding-interval’ motifs, which also can be interpreted as the repeating harmonic/melodic pattern of a chaconne or passacaglia theme. So, my Passacaglia Metamorphosis is the realisation of that. Over the past year I had also been transcribing Eppur Si Muove by Robert Simpson for my father. That piece includes a passacaglia movement which provided me with the inspiration for my own passacaglia theme. In Eppur Si Muove, the passacaglia theme gradually rises in pitch throughout the piece. I allowed my passacaglia theme to take that one step further as it rises in pitch throughout the theme itself, allowing the next statement to start a semitone higher than the last – this is most apparent during the ‘Waltz’ section.

Mixing a passacaglia with a metamorphosis also allowed me to explore the directional structure which I mentioned earlier as a passacaglia is more often than not, a rather static form as the it is always anchored by the passacaglia theme. And on the other side a metamorphosis is always changing. Merging these two contrasts was very interesting for me and I think the resulting piece achieved my intentions completely.

The piece is not a strict passacaglia, and the theme is often disguised in the transitions between sections and also appears in an inverted state in the trumpets in the closing section. The piece is also a metric accelerando from beginning to end.

Passacaglia Metamorphosis was first performed on May 7th, 2019 at 1pm by the RCS Brass Dectet in the Plug festival at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The attached recording is from that performance.