The »Perspectives of Parallel and Contrary Movements« are a subdivision of the larger cycle Studies for Winds op. 29. They can be played either separately, as a cycle, or mixed with other Studies for Winds op. 29.

August Strindberg's novella Alone (Ensam), in which old friends meet again after several decades and realize how far apart they have grown over the intervening years, inspired me to compose this work cycle.

Similarly to life always shifting perspectives, one can imagine floating reed islands in moving waters that can be seen from a distance. The islands drift towards one another, seem to meet according to the perspective of the observer, although they only move past each other, and separate again.

 I have tried to translate this living picture into musical islands, in which perspective and change dominate the flowing events. What appear as musically fixed thoughts are presented in isolation, interlaced and separated. It thus becomes clear that it is not only these apparently fixed cells that change but also the environment, the form and the tempo. The dynamics are also subject to continual change.

The cycle so far consists of:

Perspectives of Parallel and Contrary Movements I, op. 29 I No. 1
for oboe solo
Duration: 2'30''
Premiere: February 10, 2008, in ASC, by Marian Vasile

In this study for solo oboe, a short three-bar rhythmic motive - consisting of dotted eighth, eighth, two sixteenths, eighth, dotted eighth - undergoes continual transformations. Looking at the motif, one notices that the note values shorten toward the center of the two sixteenth notes, only to expand again in a retrograde manner. These metamorphoses go so far that at the end of the piece one can no longer recognize the shape of the original motif.

Perspectives of Parallel and Contrary Movements II, op. 29 II C No. 1
for B-flat clarinet and tenor saxophone
Composed in Vienna in 2009
Duration: 1'35''
Premiere: February 9, 2010 in Vienna by Stefan Neubauer and Peter Rohrsdorfer

The duo study for clarinet and tenor saxophone carries the insights gained in the quartet study for alto saxophone, trumpet and two trombones into a duo setting, where the more frequent use with tetrachords and longer phrases is striking.

Perspectives of Parallel and Contrary Movements II, op. 29 IV H No. 1
for saxophone, trumpet, and two trombones
Duration: 3'19''
Premiere: November 13, 2007, in the Vienna Musikverein, within the festival »Wien Modern«, played by the EWC conducted by René Staar

The quartet study for alto saxophone, trumpet and two trombones deals with shifts of rhythmically determined phrases, especially through two tandems (that of saxophone and trumpet, and that of the two trombones) and also processes them in manifold transformations.