Stalactites

The piece is contemporary classical music ( Brass Quintet) and loosely follows variations. I used moments of silence, isolated chords, repeated notes, glissandos, odd metric signature, polymeters, and sounds with increasing dynamics as the main elements of the piece. Throughout, I aimed to maintain a certain degree of “disorientation” for the listener.

The piece begins with the aforementioned elements, which follow one another and become denser, eventually leading to a highly complex rhythmic texture composed solely of staccato notes, which becomes the main “mood” of the piece. After consolidating the texture of the staccato notes, I employed a rallentando variation to exhaust the energy of the moment, allowing me to transition to another variation—the sustained notes and bottleneck.

This variation enabled me to move into yet another one: the key change. Since the piece starts with atonal harmony, I took the opportunity to create contrast by introducing a traditional, triumphant romantic fanfare. During the fanfare, there is another rallentando, where the slowing tempo corresponds to a decrease in dynamics. I like this effect because it feels as though time is genuinely slowing down, as if we were listening to a “lo-fi” version of reality.

Subsequently, there is a return to the initial elements of the piece but like a sort of battle, such as: atonal harmony vs. tonal harmony, staccato notes vs. sustained  notes, complex rhythms, glissandos, with the atonal and staccato sections ultimately prevailing. This leads to the end of the piece, gradually slowing down, and as it slows, reducing its material until concluding with isolated compacted chords in silence ( just like the start of the piece). At the very end, there is a major chord to once again subvert expectations.