Brooks: Phantasmagoria (Excerpt 3)

Kris Brooks - Phantasmagoria (Excerpt 3)

Vidin Philharmonic, Bulgaria
Michael Holmes, Conductor

A study in orchestration, Phantasmagoria also serves as an experiment in lack of form. The dictionary defines phantasmagoria as "a changing, incoherent series of apparitions or phantasms, as in a dream." Wishing to explore the freedom that lack of form might bring to the compositional process, Brooks takes musical "snapshots" and arranges them back-to-back with little or no transition, resulting in a type of symphonic collage. However, as the thematic link and musical flow between some sections is not entirely incoherent, a sense of form remains detectable. And it is precisely this sort of compositional daydream which Brooks wished to depict. The work consists of about twenty different sections which explore many different sound worlds. A sampling of subtitles includes "Doves at Dawn", "A Dark Place", "A Light Place", "Trance", "Introduktionen und Kontra-punct", "Fin-de-siecle", "Alpha Rays", and "Ascent". As might be imagined, the listener and orchestra are kept on their toes by the constant change of tempo, style, orchestration, and content.

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