Empty Fathoms

Flute, clarinet, harp & string quartet

5 minutes

First performed by the Brunel Ensemble, conducted

by Chris Austin in the Warehouse, November 1999.

Recorded on the CD, Chroma, (Riverrun RVRCD56)

Sound sample performed by Chroma.

Programme note:

Empty Fathoms, written in September 1998, takes its inspiration from a

passage of the poem ‘Orfeo: A Masque’ by George Mackay Brown:

“The uncoiled line, baited, wandering deep. Orfeo and the fiddle and empty fathoms, Play a reel, man”

(From the book ‘Northern Lights’ published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.)

I was interested in creating a work which followed a fishing line uncoiling through the cross section of an ocean - journeying from the unstable surface waters down to the sea bed. On its passage down, the line passes through different layers of sediment, converging tides, and entangles strange sea creatures until it finally reaches the sea bed and nestles amongst the rippling weeds...

The fishing line is depicted by a series of chords - first heard during the opening two bars of the harp. This chordal line, which begins tight and unaltered, uncoils through the ensemble and, “wandering deep”, explores the harmonies and melodies of which it is capable. There are also glimpses of folk tunes that interrupt the organic flow of material but which also become caught, 'baited' by the line and diffuse into the harmonic stream. Along the way spiraling rhythms, oscillating chord progressions and rotating structures (such as the similar gestures which begin and end the work) all parallel the powerful circular

currents which surge through the oceans.