Entry 8: Maggie Payne – Fluid Dynamics

This piece is very much in its own timezone. All motions, movements and gestures occur at a slow gradual pace. When looked at in a macro sense, the piece has two main sections, which are both gradual transformations, and all the sound is derived from very little material that is highly magnified or stretched. The piece is slow moving in its nature, but it is very persistent and strong with its fluid movements. The intensity of the piece creeps up on the listener as most of the ideas start very softly or quietly, and build up consistently, but in the first section of the piece the build ups always die back down, and they never quite reach their destination, but hint at it with each cresendo of sound. The second section not only reaches the climax hinted at in the first section, the entire section is an extremely long play out of the climax of the piece, and it is very effective with its intesity in my opinion. So in a way, the first section is the build up of the piece and second section is the prolonged climax, and the entire piece is the reaching of this climax in a very slow manner. Thus we have a large projection of a small idea, just as if we were looking at a musical idea under a microscope, and the idea in this case would be the climax. The use of long silence in this piece aids this microscopic idea I have of the piece, and it also sets an atmosphere of slowed progression and unfolding.
The slow stretched nature of this piece had a strong effect on my thoughts, breathing, and other things alike and I found the slow nature very calming and I felt very insync with gradual movement in the piece. In other words, there is a definite meditative quality in this piece due to its slow nature, and I found this piece very interesting to listen to once I “tuned in” to the gradual motion. I commend Payne in her ability to generate so much with so little, and in her unique approach to the piece.