R-E-S-T and composition: Silence, breath and aah ... [Gap] musical rest

Abstract

Antonia Barnett-McIntosh's compositional concerns lie in the specificity of sound gestures and their variation, translation and adaptation, often employing chance-based and procedural operations. In this chapter, Antonia describes how her research with Hubbub investigated musical rest and its opposites, silence and noise, and rest and exhaustion, and outlines the compositional processes at work in the development of two pieces composed during her residency: Breath for solo alto flute (world premiere by Ilze Ikse at the Hubbub Late Spectacular at Wellcome Collection, 4 September 2015), and none sitting resting for string quartet (world premiere by Aurora Orchestra at BBC Radio 3's 'Why Music?' at Wellcome Collection, 26 September 2015).