Chris Adams: Strata

“When Helen initially asked me to write her a harp piece, one possibility that arose in discussion was that of using a loop pedal. This created many possibilities for the piece, but also created limits in the way I could use certain material. After the expansive opening, Strata uses multiple layers built up of patterns played over top of each other. The constantly repeating riffs drive the piece and the melodic material weaves around this, sometimes in sync and sometimes purposely against the underlying patterns. Strata was written while I was Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago in 2011.”