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canonical ensembles (1983​-​1984) for alto flute, bass clarinet, alto sax, piano, violin, cello, contrabass

by david toub

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Jordan C Perry
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Allan Cronin
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tortkis
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1.
ensemble I: music outside time 36:29
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2.
ensemble II: music against fascism 29:01
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3.
ensemble III: composition in R4 affine space-time 29:06
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about

canonical ensembles is a term from statistical mechanics, and the irony of using this title for this particular work is that there isn't a single canon in the entire work. Until digitizing the score and developing an audio file, I didn't even know how long the work was, and it is actually longer than I had thought by more than a half-hour. 

The scoring is for alto flute, bass clarinet, alto sax, piano, violin, cello and contrabass. They get quite a workout.

It is very unlikely to be performed, since it is quite long (about 95 minutes) and the three wind players would have to employ circular breathing techniques (which is not as common as I hoped when I wrote this work back in the early 80's). Nonetheless, it has sections that I am particularly fond of, and is a bridge between my earlier 12-tone music and my subsequent works of focused music (aka minimalism).

I made a few modifications from the early 80's: I trimmed down the opening of the third section because it just seemed to go on too long for my current taste, but I also added some additional repetitions of other measures in the overall piece so it is more or less just as long as it would have been otherwise. Unlike my more recent works, canonical ensembles is far less sparse, and the score has many articulations, dynamics and other markings (whereas the music of the past decade or longer tends to have few if any such markings).

canonical ensembles is in three sections:
1. ensemble I:  music outside time
2. ensemble II:  music against fascism
3. ensemble III:  composition in R4 affine space-time

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released January 9, 2023

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david toub Wyncote, Pennsylvania

I'm a Philadelphia-area composer who writes minimalist music, with a few works ranging from 2 hours to more than 4 hours. Several of my works have been commercially recorded, most recently by the Belgian pianist Stephane Ginsburgh for the World Edition label, and another album is forthcoming. Performances have taken place in several countries, including the US, France, Belgium, Ukraine and Japan. ... more

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