Programme note

I like to think that the creative process is comprised of a convoluted collection of threads which call out, at some point, either to be untangled or tied together (knotted) for one purpose or another. In my recent works, the knot has become one of my go-to metaphors for the act of “fixing” (i.e. fastening) musical ideas using notation. This current work is made of up two movements which exist as two unique “knots”. Their respective ternary musical structures mirror one another, and serve as a “preview” of two possible approaches to dealing with the limited set of sound objects which I’d established during the process of sketching. The first movement (“first knot”) is written in the manner of the opening of a larger work. The second (“second knot”) as a bite-size encapsulation of a larger, imagined work.

— Njabulo Phungula