Title: Drift
Year Completed: 2015
Duration: 22 mins
Instrumentation: Piano Duet (Two Pianos)
Credits: Commissioned by Duo Turgeon, Anne Louise-Turgeon and Edward Turgeon
Premiere: April 5, 2016, Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Toronto, ON



Purchase/Rent: Canadian Music Centre



A work musing on lake effect snow and the concept of drift, i.e. "to vary from or oscillate randomly about a fixed setting, position, or mode of operation". The idea of a snow drift may be the most obvious imagery, however the music is also about the concept of drift as explored in more subtle ways. Drift refers to a number of elements imbedded within the music. For example, in movement 1 — Slow — chords drift in unpredictable ways around a fixed harmonic language. The music eventually drifts towards a low rumble (maybe analogous to a wall of storm clouds), before the chords are revealed once more. Movement 2 — Fast — drifts into rhythmic territory. Rhythmic patterns form and drift into new patterns. Shifts to hocketing is a key component. Movement 3 — Still — invokes a calmness after the (musical/literal) tempest. And finally, movement 4 — Drift — is built from ‘endless’ scales, perhaps evoking the drifting of snow after the storm.

1. Slow
2. Fast
3. Still
4. Drift

Links: Duo Turgeon

derek charke drift