DESCRIPTION:
IF:IFF
James O'Callaghan

McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble
Guillaume Bourgogne, Conductor
9 April 2014, Pollock Hall,
Schulich School of Music, Montréal

PROGRAMME NOTE:

IF:IFF (if : if and only if) is an interrogation of cause and effect; of sounds and their antecedent physical production. The piece responds to this idea broadly and through many means; especially through techniques that attempt to sever or blur the link between performance gesture and resultant sound.
In a sense, the piece is about very basic musical questions, like: 'What is causing the sound?', 'Where is it coming from?', and 'How is it produced?'. Recorded and electronic sound grants us the ability to deconstruct these questions at a fundamental level; to sever sounds from their source and place them in new contexts. In IF:IFF, sounds sometimes emerge from musical instruments without their causal physical gesture, and at other times a physical gesture produces no sound.
A central image of the piece is of glass shattering - strongly associated with the physical action of striking glass. I find it a very salient depiction of the idea of cause and effect, as the material of glass changes considerably after being shattered; it cannot be undone or redone. Affectations of this image manifest themselves variously in the piece, while continuously deconstructing the close association between action and result.

"That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise."
-David Hume