Jane Stanley: Helix Reflection [download]

Work for flute and clarinet, composed in September 2013.

Premiered by Lamorna Nightingale and Jason Noble on 18 October 2013, Concert Hall, University of Glasgow

Helix Reflection is a concentrated mediation for flute and clarinet. An impetus for the piece was the image of a double helix. This is evoked musically through interweaving melodic activity between the two lines. The piece opens with the two instruments playing sustained notes separated by a small interval. Their sonorities are coloured with microtonal inflections, glissandi and variations in vibrato. Over time harmonic stasis gives way to greater mobility and melodic ornamentation.