Full orchestra.
2(+picc.)/2(+E.hn.)/2/2; 4/3/3/1; timp; 2 perc; harp; piano; strings
Timing: 12'
Composed: 2003

Percussion requirements

Percussion 1	Percussion 2
vibraphone chimes medium tomtom bass drum suspended cymbal 2 metal coffee cans large tam tam triangle whip	glockenspiel 2 bongos low tomtom log drum lion's roar tambourine medium tam tam

Commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra with assistance from the
Canada Council for the Arts.

Though as an orchestral work, The Linearity of Light exists in the world of sound, it finds its inspiration in the visual world -in the qualities, characteristics and properties of light. When we talk about music (and sound in general), we often use words borrowed from the visual sense. We refer to the "colour" of an instrument's tone, or we describe a chord as "dark" or "bright". Light, like sound, is intangible, and yet it is all around us, and can have a profound effect on our mental and emotional states.

I began by creating a list of many words and ideas associated with light, as I sat with my notebook and watched the sunlight dance on the waters of English Bay. The piece begins with an evocation of this shimmering and sparkling light, which gradually becomes transformed into a blinding beacon, in the form of a fortissimo unison, which reflects off imaginary mirrors in space and whose intensity leaves fading afterimages on the "retina" of the ear. Soon after, a short, soft dense chord from the full orchestra acts as a prism to the sound, breaking it up into a spectrum of pitches which first accompanies an extended English horn solo. This prism/spectrum idea becomes a recurring motif in the work, with various "colour filters" applied to the sound, allowing different combinations of pitches and instruments to pass through, creating first a warm, saturating kind of light, later a series of delicately shaded colours, and then (in the middle of the piece) a cold, pale light that accompanies a ghostly trumpet solo. A roar from the tam tams leads into the final section of the piece, suggestive of a blazing and penetrating light. In the closing gesture, the sound almost focuses again into a single beam, but at the last moment, the rays scatter off in all directions.