Chiyoko Szlavnics

The fourth disc in the Canadian Composers Series features the music of Chiyoko Szlavnics. The CD contains three works, two of which use sinewaves in conjuncton with acoustic instruments. The title track ‘During a Lifetime’ is written for sinewaves and saxophone quartet, an instrument on which Szlavnics herself used to perform. The final piece, ‘Reservoir’, is composed for sinewaves and an unusual instrumental octet, including two accordions, two flutes and two percussionists. The middle piece ‘Freehand Poitras’ is for string trio, but like the other works on the disc it is typified by the use of long sustained tones and slow glissandi. In his introductory essay in the booklet accompanying the Canadian Composers Series CDs, Nick Storring writes about how Szlavnics’ use of sustained tones is often derived from line drawings that she does as part of the compositional process: “She deals with sound in a patiently shifting manner, through series of woven-together billows of quiet dynamism. Many of her pieces are effectively translated from drawings that she makes. Often consisting of interleaved matrices of fine lines, it's easy to grasp how their structures serve as foundations for her music. Several hint at an illusory world of perspective that exists between two and three dimensionality, simultaneously evincing depth and flatness.”