Viscosity Vanishing

Johnson, Colin

About the work

Viscosity vanishing was written for a workshop with Ensemble Bash in summer 2000. The piece begins with a slow melodic line played on the bowed vibraphone, with is decorated sparsely at first by the other instruments. As the piece progresses this decoration becomes more insistent, and the line itself less regular, until the decoration drives the piece forward by itself. The original material returns at the end, but changed; now the line is no longer formal and rigid, but in a freely improvised rhythm. The title suggests an image loosely related to the way that the piece loses its stately formality as it progresses, much as when we stir and heat a viscous liquid like treacle, the liquid loses its viscosity.

First Performance: Ensemble Bash concert, CoMA Summer School 2000, Bretton Hall, Yorkshire

Technical notes

The instrumentation is bowed vibraphone, glockenspiel, crotales, mark tree, snare drum, three drums of varying sizes, and temple blocks.

Origin

Call for Pieces Entry: Ensemble Bash, CoMA Summer School 2000