Boosey & Hawkes (Hendon Music)
My early conversations with virtuoso harpist Sivan Magen about my new work for his instrument—one I've long adored—touched on the solo fantasy (around for about 500 years, it's an old idea in music—a genre stemming from improvisation rather than adhering to a predetermined structure). I later found myself often contemplating and even fixating upon such a notion, and as I began to write, I decided to sketch and shape my musical kernels without any thoughts as to their context, or even inclusion, in the finished piece. Such a process allowed me to wallow and luxuriate in the sounds that the strings of this instrument, when plucked, make better than any other—once I'd opened several cans and colors, I was very happy to splash around in the paints.
The process of assembly—creating context and structure out of non-related objects of many stripes, characters and lengths—proved to be far more daunting and intellectually challenging; I began to find myself in a sort-of auditory, temporal puzzle with far too many possible outcomes. ribboned / braided / spun is essentially a description of that process. As musical objects, gestures and ideas appear and reappear in the piece, many in ever-extended forms (the ribboning), some of them begin to associate and entwine with each other (the braiding). And not unlike a mobile sculpture by Alexander Calder, both the elements and the piece may (or may not) change from one's point of view (the spinning).
ribboned / braided / spun was commissioned by Carnegie Hall, and is dedicated with warm admiration to my friend Sivan on the occasion of his debut recital in Weill Hall on October 21, 2014.
—Sean Shepherd