Rise
Rise It always strikes me that calling a piece into existence is somewhat artificial, since, unlike a novel or a movie, a piece begins life without any context, it creates its world as it progresses and cannot conjure up history or ideas or characters from the past. Most pieces seem to start with a sense of slowly mounting tension. What if the piece starts in the middle? How does it then rise to completion, and what controls the ascent?
Rise is based around the idea of rising lines, and the idea that starting in the middle is as good a place to start as anywhere. The piece is also about the nature of rhythm; contrast is almost always about increasing the rhythmic syncopation, in a variety of ways, also a rise in density, or a rise in the amounts of silence in the texture. Integral to Rise is the fusion of the tape part and the piano part into a new hybrid type of instrument; the tape is embedded in the piano and the piano reacts to, and comments upon the tape. The tape plays figures impossible to the piano, and the piano responds in a tightly linked conversation with the tape and the saxophone. The effect of the whole is of a dangerously overloaded machine spinning almost out of control but for the ability of the live performers to rise to the occasion.
Rise is available on Timothy McAllister's CD on Innova, Glint. For reviews of Rise and to check out Tim's CD, use this link: Glint, Innova 764