Dodecahedron
Siddharth P.
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Dodecahedron is built on a twelve-tone row (C# G C B D E A# G# A D# F# F). Its structure emerges from continuous motivic transformation involving this core material. The piece begins with twelve statements of this row, transposed (in order) to the pitches contained within it and sometimes layered over one another. Several developments follow: a fugue, a restatement, a melodic theme accompanied by echoes of itself. A contrapuntal section less bound by the rules of fugal writing sees the theme get broken down to an even greater extent than before. It culminates in a section where all instruments speed up together as the row is played in chunks of two notes by each pair of instruments, alternating between being played in the standard direction and in retrograde. Following three emphatic statements of the first three notes of the row, the piece closes with a highly contrasting coda, ending in a state of harmonic stillness.
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I think of creativity as inherently playful. It is a kind of activity that is performed for its own sake. Though creativity can be motivated by things outside of itself, it never needs external justification. Creativity harnesses the productive potential of playful and imaginative activity.
