Sequence of Earlier Heaven Barry D. Truax

The title refers to the pattern of trigrams in the I Ching known as the Primal Arrangement, based on pairs of opposites, such as Heaven and Earth (Ch’ien & K’un), Wind and Thunder (Sun & Chên), Water and Fire (K’an & Li), Mountain and Lake (Kên & Tui). In the musical work, this progression takes place in 8 sections, each ninety seconds in length, where each pair of four channels depicts the energy generated by these oppositions. When diffused through speakers arranged in a cube, the upper and lower sets of speakers reflect this relationship. The work is the complement to the Sequence of Later Heaven (1993) which depicts the trigrams as a periodic cycle. The work, as with its counterpart, is entirely based on musical instruments found in Pacific Rim cultures, including the Javanese gamelan gongs, the Philippine patangok, the khaen from South-East Asia, the Korean kayageum, the Chinese guzheng and tam-tam, Japanese meditation bells, bamboo brushes, the rosewood keyed marimba from Central America, the Peruvian bombo and box drum, and the Chilean rainstick. These sounds are mixed together to form chords whose complex spectra become more apparent when the sounds are digitally resonated and/or stretched in time.

  • Year of composition: 1998
  • Genre: Electroacoustics
  • Format: Fixed media
  • Instrumentation: 8 digital soundtracks
  • Software used: PODX system for sound synthesis and composition.
  • Duration of the submitted work: 12:00
  • Publisher: Cambridge Street Publishing
  • Premiere: May 18, 1998, The work was commissioned with the assistance of the Canada Council by ACREQ, Montreal, and premiered there.
  • Disc publication: Sequence of Earlier Heaven is available on the Cambridge Street Records opera CD Powers of Two.

Linked project

  • CAP
    Allik, Austin, Bach, Bouchard, Calder, Crossman, Cumbo, Dal Farra, de Chevigny, Frenette…
    185 tracks

More works by Barry D. Truax