When It Gives - Ignite the Arts

When It Gives is an acousmatic composition that unfolds across two movements. The title refers to the second movement, which explores the unease of a material on the verge of breakage.

The composition incorporates sounds such as glass collisions, cactus spikes, guitar strings, polystyrene, water, foil and synthesised tones. The first movement centres on an algorithmic system of evolving quartal trichords that form a mutating harmonic mass. Microtonal textures emerge as descending glissandi intertwine, darkening until they eventually dissolve into the second movement. Here, the focus shifts to the polystyrene, where a language of pre-breakage ‘cracks’ and ‘squeaks’ is explored, heightening the notion that something is about to give.