a r c u s

Instrumentation:             3.3.3.3/4.3.3.1/Timps(4).Perc(3).Cel.Hrp/Str

Duration:                       15’       

Performance details:        -          

Recording details:            -

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Arcus uses existing musical material to build pitch sets from. The music is constructed from sets based on; the theme tune to the children’s television programme, Rainbow; the theme tune to the popular cartoon, Simpsons, and the third set is derived from a melody from Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  The main magic square sets are constructed in a fairly basic fashion and the transformation sets are constructed in a similar way to the transformation sets of much of Peter Maxwell Davies’ music. The music traces an arch-like shape, in terms of the set material use. The title of the composition is therefore a pun, since it refers not only to the formal process, but also the main set-square; ‘arcus’ being the Latin word for rainbow.