3333 – 4331 – timp – 3 perc – hp – pno – strings
6 – 7 minutes
excerpt performed here by the New England Philharmonic conducted by Richard Pittman
About:
Diaphony is a piece that depicts binary relationships in sound. At particular instances in Diaphony certain musical parameters are paired with a musical partner. The tension or release created by these relationships sets up a drama that unfolds over the course of the piece. I came up with the title Diaphony to describe this action while contemplating a lesson on monophony and polyphony I was about to give in the basic music appreciation class I was teaching during the fall of 2005. Several months after completing the piece, I was quite surprised to find out that Diaphony is also a term Medieval theorists used to describe dissonant counterpoint.
Diaphony was performed by the Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra as part of their 2006 Future Classics series. Read a New York Times feature on that concert here.
