for symphony orchestra (3333 4331 timp, 3 perc, pno, hp, str), duration 10′
commissioned by Pro Musica Foundation
premiered 5.6.2014 in Pro Musica Foundation’s 40-years Anniversary Concert in Helsinki
Pro Musica Foundation’s orchestra, Atso Almila cond.
In Traces the musical material is leaving different kinds of traces. These traces can be echos created by repetitions or they can be resonances of sounds. They can also be remembrances, layers of memories. It’s interesting how we remember things and how things have changed from their original manifestation when time passes by; sometimes memories can arise only as fleeting emotions or floating thoughts. I was using different kinds of noise elements in the piece in order to create different space illusions. In large echoing spaces the noises are very different from little or dry spaces. I wanted to create the thought of this, the music being in different spaces, even though the orchestra is only in one space using only acoustical instruments. The material is also ”zooming” in and out in different ways. In Traces when the zooming is going in, the material becomes more and more granular, and when zooming out the material becomes more echoed and at times becomes like a ”sea of resonances”.