I am not an island (etude on orchestra) began from an acoustic orchestral work composed for the Dresden Philharmonie in 2012. I was not satisfied with the outcome, but remained interested in using the reference recording as the basis for an acousmatic work, closer to what I had originally imagined. Much of the source material has been altered so that it no longer represents the original piece directly.

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The work takes as one of its points of departure the hidden orchestra pit in Gottfried Semper’s design for the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, where Wagner concealed the orchestra beneath a hood so that the musicians would be invisible to the audience. For me, this suggests a kind of acousmatic condition, where sound is separated from its visible source.

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The sound and aura of the orchestra are deeply embedded in our listening. I am not an island (etude on orchestra) plays with that attachment. It presents an invisible and imagined orchestra, one in which the limits of the acoustic source are abandoned and the recognizability of the orchestral sound world is distorted.

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The work was composed in studios at my home and at the University of Victoria.