Duration: 8 minutes
About
A pantoum is a poetic form consisting of interlocking four-line stanzas. Lines 2 and 4 of the first stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the second stanza, lines 2 and 4 of the second stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the third stanza, and so on. Lines 2 and 4 of the final stanza are taken from lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza, making the entire form circular.
This piece is not
based on a specific poem in pantoum form; it is a translation of the abstract
poetic form into a musical form. Each line of poetry becomes a musical section,
and these phrases recur in the order dictated by the pantoum. Furthermore, much
of the pitch material is derived from an ordered "pantoum" set of
pitch classes. The set, which is freely used in various transformations
throughout the piece, was created by a two-stage "pantoum" mapping
which turned an initial twelve note set into the forty-eight note set used in
the piece.