Turning Tides

Roberts, Jeffrey

About the work

When the tide turns, the water in salt-water rivers and salt marsh creeks transitions between incoming and ebb tide currents. The water does not cease to move, but rather fragments into a melange of inward, outward and swirling motions that overlap, intersect, collide and synthesize. Watching the indecisive movements of boats moored in a river can attest to this: sometimes they float facing inland, sometimes towards the sea, sometimes facing sideways, caught in an eddy. With the piece TURNING TIDES, I have tried to express something of these motions. Musical shapes and processes repeat themselves and overlap with each other in different ways. They change subtly each time, they may build up and die out or transition into something new. But as much as it is the blend of motions that fascinates me, it is also the quiet, slow and almost unnoticeable process of the tide turning that makes it so wonderful to watch. I hape to capture this subtle quality in the music as well.