Name: Self, Susannah: The Ring of Power
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Self, Susannah: The Ring of Power

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Arrangement: for trombone and soundscape
Edition Type: score
Publisher: Composers Edition
Catalogue Number: ce-ss1rop1
Pages: 20
Date Published: 14th Jun 2022

The idea came to me that as a human race we are faced with an eternal cycle of dictators. At its zenith, dictatorship cruelly and ruthlessly subsumes all in its path either as participants of sadism or victims of its delusions. After each dictatorship period, a time of liberalism arises but the cycle then demands a return to evil. Hence enough time has elapsed since Hitler to allow for Putin. The score for The Ring of Power was composed in three stages. Firstly, through visual improvisation in the form of free painting in ink and brush on thick water colour paper. Then I created a soundscape in response to the paintings using advanced technology that allowed me to improvise in multi-layers with my voice using a series of technologically generated distortions. I also added in 3 synthesizers and gunshots (used as cues for the trombone player) into the mix. Finally, I worked-in the trombone solo. It was at this stage that as I responded to the symphonic scale of the soundscape, I was drawn to make fleeting references to the brass writing in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. There also emerged in my imagination the inevitable connections between the ultimate failure of dictatorships and the message of The Ring: that power corrupts. The Ring of Power is dedicated to Catherine Pluygers, artistic director of New Wind Festival and Alan Tomlinson, trombonist.

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