Brian Ferneyhough - Unity Capsule for solo flute (1976) (with score)

Of Brian Ferneyhough's several hypervirtuosic solo works written during the 1970s, Unity Capsule for flute solo (1973-76) may be the most extreme example, and therefore in one sense the most pure of intent. In many ways a continuation of the Time and Motions Study series, Unity Capsule examines as one of its main premises the potential (musical and psychological) energy of a soloist faced with a score that can't possibly be played by a soloist in its entirety. The player must filter several layers of articulation, gestural types, and rhythmic patterns, he or she must attempt a musically viable reconciliation among straightforward "pitched" music, alternate sounds such as key clicks, breath sounds, vocalizations, multiphonics, or harmonics, each of which may be found under different basic tempos than that of another level. The resultant performer anxiety, or adventurousness, becomes part of the expression of the piece, and the inevitably incomplete rendering of the piece in a given performance lends the work an aspect of the "open form."

This parallels other open form-performer-decision or otherwise indeterminate-pieces such as those by Earle Brown, Boulez, or Stockhausen. If the details of Unity Capsule are likely to change from one performance to the next, Ferneyhough's highly integrated basic structure will nevertheless remain unchanged. As performers become more familiar with the piece (and others of this kind), their changing aspirations for increasingly accurate performance become another facet of the performance. As important as these somewhat abstract considerations may be, it's necessary to note that the musical material of the piece ideally attains a lyricism that connects the work to the best virtuosic solo literature of the past. (Robert Kirzinger)

Performed by Kolbeinn Bjarnason.