Fractals
A musical whimsy for bassoon and piano
Music: Elizabeth Alexander
Each movement of Fractals begins with a simple musical seed — a rhythmic pattern, interval, or brief motif. Like their geometric namesakes, these five playful miniatures mirror nature’s genius for spinning intricate, unpredictable patterns from the repetition and transformation of simple rules.
The geometric fractals that inspired each movement range from the delicate “Cirri” and spunky “Tremas and Squigs” to the quirky “Twindragon,” described by American Record Guide as “a toe-tapping, finger-snapping, brainier and more complex interpretation of “Cool” from Bernstein’s West Side Story.”
1. Cirri
2. Devil’s Staircase
3. Twindragon
4. River Tree
5. Tremas and Squigs
“[My accompanist and I] adore this work. The rhythmic and textural intricacies combine in a refreshing character for bassoon and piano. We discover new soundscapes with every playing and are drawn in anew. Thank you for such a fresh addition to the bassoon repertoire!” Christin Schillinger, Assistant Professor of Bassoon, Miami University (Oxford, OH)
“Okay…it is a bad move to listen to music while writing scores, but I did it anyway. Oh my… Fractals is just sublime. Oh my goodness… this is just too good. The vibrato at 1.26… egads! The timbre change on the A at 1.41… what!?!? I hate distractions from my work, but this is so buttery and nice.” Geoffrey L Burch, Composer for film, television and video games, Facebook, January 11, 2014
Details and Ordering Information
Composer Notes
About geometric fractals:
Fractals are intriguing shapes whose endlessly repeating patterns arise from surprisingly concise mathematical rules. These curious structures fascinated the geometers of ancient Greece, adorned Hindu temples and Islamic mosques, and influenced the art of M.C. Escher.
Before the 1975 publication of Benoit Mandelbrot’s book Fractals: Form, Chance and Dimension, there was no single name for these complex, infinitely scaled shapes. Mandelbrot, who had been studying patterns of disorder and turbulence for nearly twenty years at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, was always looking for ways to share the excitement of his discoveries, and his enthusiasm proved contagious. His playful coinage “fractal,” from the Latin word fractus meaning “broken” or “fragmented,” quickly captured the imagination of scientists and the public alike.
Mandelbrot’s 1982 overview, The Fractal Geometry of Nature, described the mathematics behind many fractal types. He also suggested that they could help explain natural patterns such as coastlines, clouds, cells, lightning, snowflakes, watersheds, and galactic dust. His striking visual depictions inspired scientists to search for other ways fractals operate in the world. Today, fractal geometry plays a role in fields as varied as medicine, meteorology, astronomy, finance, computer modeling, and graphic design.
About Fractals: A musical whimsy for bassoon and piano
I began learning about fractals in the early 1990s when a computer scientist friend leant me his copy of The Fractal Geometry of Nature. I was instantly intrigued by how geometric fractals combine order and chaos to create a pattern with both unity and variety. Finding the right balance is crucial in music as well: too much order can leave the listener bored, while too much chaos can leave them completely lost!
For each of my “musical fractals,” I devised a few simple musical rules and allowed them to play out. That said, I rarely followed those rules to the letter! Sometimes the music knows where it needs to go, and there’s no formula for that.
Performers
Premiere: Cynthia Cameron Fix and Dale Fix (Madison, WI)
Kathryn Anderson and Catherine Fischer (Minneapolis, MN)
Renee Dee and Debora Stewart (Wooster, OH)
Lee Goodhew and Elizabeth Alexander (Ithaca, NY)
Kimberly Buchar Kelley. Doctoral Recital, University of Illinois (Urbana, IL)
Torsten Knabe and Christina Wright-Ivanova (Austin, TX)
Stacy Motquin and Elizabeth Alexander (Ithaca, NY)
Liz Rosa and Nick Weiser. Master’s Recital, Columbia University (New York City, NY)
Christin Schillinger and Jed Moss:
– Advanced Double Reed Institute (Dallas, TX)
– Celebration of Women in Music (Saint Louis, MO)
– International Double Reed Society Conference (Los Angeles, CA)
– International Double Reed Society Conference (Norman, OK)
– Vianden International Chamber Music Festival (Vianden, LUXEMBOURG)
Elizabeth Thompson (Cambridge, UNITED KINGDOM)
