Grey and White


for solo flute (1981)


Duration: ca 10 minutes


Grey and White blends techniques and stylistic elements of contemporary flute music with the influence of the flute music heard in the Japanese Noh drama. In Grey and White, the flautist, is asked to use alternate fingerings throughout the work, in order to produce alternate tunings: quarter-tones and various micro-tones. The performer is also asked to use various ‘extended techniques’ as expressive devices: ‘keyed’ vibrato, glissandi, and a wide variety of articulations. Grey and White contrasts passages of long, sustained notes, with periods of silence and occasional passages of rapid activity, which I hoped would reflect the kind of other-worldly abstraction, understatement and refinement heard in the Noh music.