Eλiptical TrajectΩry

Written originally for a music theory course that covered works written from the 20th century through the present day, Eλiptical TrajectΩry is a short piece for three violas that explores the set [0 1 5 7], or (by Forte’s classification of sets) 4-16. While the piece is freely atonal (only serialized by the use of the 4-16 set), chromatic completion is withheld until the final few moments of the piece with the addition of the viola’s lowest note, the open C3. The title “Eλiptical TrajectΩry” alludes to the nature of the piece in a harmonic and formal sense as it cycles through multiple transpositions of the set and its inversion, each time slowly getting closer to chromatic saturation. Additionally, the incorporation of characters from the Greek alphabet in the title refers to the mathematical construction of the piece.

Performance Time: 2’00”