Four Pieces About Water

Four Pieces About Water (2000) was commissioned by the Nova Scotia Arts Council for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal’s Generation 2000 Project. Each composer was asked to write a piece which reflected the region of Canada from which we came, and for me, as someone from the Maritime province of Nova Scotia, water-related music seemed like an obvious choice. In the first movement, Running Water, fast, intertwining scalar passages depict the surging energy of a stream in spring. This runs directly into the cyclical ebb and flow of waves in the second movement, Salt water. In this movement the piccolo plays a brief “bird-style” melody – based not on a real bird, but on the idea of a bird singing by the shore. In the third movement, Frozen Water, the kaleidoscopic interplay of motives in the different instruments suggest falling snow. The piece ends with the rhythmic patterns of Rain Water.