Society Sound, page 45

Society Sound (2006)
for
flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello

by
Robert Morris

Program Notes

Society Sound was written in March 2006 on commission from the Society for New Music to celebrate its thirty-fifth anniversary. It was originally premiered as part of a larger composition, SOUND/PATH/FIELD, performed on the quadrangle of Syracuse University on September 24, 2006. Nevertheless, it can stand alone as a concert piece of chamber music.

Like its progenitor, Society Sound is based on a cycle of 90 notes that overlaps all twenty-nine of the tetrachordal harmonies available in the 12-note, equal-tempered system, each harmony occurring exactly three times in the cycle. In this way and many others, it can be heard as a musical map of the larger work.