The composer Edward Cowie often uses titles for his pieces to provide listeners with a frame of reference, rather than to impose a subjective personal interpretation.
Compositional Technique
In "Particle Partita," the composer uses two violins to represent the passing of knowledge, with the second player interrupting the first before a section is finished, and these interruptions become closer as the piece progresses.
Instruments
Edward Cowie's "Kandinsky" for guitar quartet expands the instrument's range by using a higher-pitched terz guitar (tuned a minor third higher) and an octave bass guitar, alongside two regular classical guitars.
Composition History
The piece "Stream and Variations" was commissioned by the Julian Bream Trust, with Julian Bream himself requesting the composer Edward Cowie to write music connected to his life in Wiltshire and the River Sem.
Compositional Technique
In "Stream and Variations," the eight variations alternate between "pools" of slower, limpid water and "runs" of narrower, turbulent stream, reflecting the two distinctive states of the River Sem.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Edward Cowie, the composer, integrates science, visual arts, and music into a "fusion-world" of ideas, often drawing inspiration from theoretical physics, fine arts theory, and landscape.
Composition History
The work "Particle Partita" was commissioned by Experimental Physicist Professor Brian Foster FRS of the University of Oxford, with funding from Oxford and the Humboldt Foundation in Germany.
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