XII: Antiphōna deals with twelve different musical elements, amongst
which prominence gets my long-time pushed-back rock background and
prog-rock era tendency to avoid simple four-chord progression. Starting
the piece with such, the work showcases facing these hesitations in a
more mature manner, balancing sophistication and visceral connection.
Antiphōna is an ancient Greek word for harmonies. Much of the structure and its ideas are indeed harmony-driven, exploring the idiosyncratic plethora of possible chords that a non-guitarist composer would perhaps not think about. The voicings in the work indeed become fairly unique to the instrument, including numerous clashes that would clash differently at a different instrument.
With a “modern“ repurposing of the term, I am fascinated by the antiphonal character of the said clashes of the two fantastic instruments.
XII : Antiphōna was commissioned by Bluvenduo with a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts in 202