Strange Stone is commissioned by Relache as part of the national series of works from Meet The Composer Commissionning Music/USA. In Stange Stone, I set out to create a sound pallet that I have been envisioning for a while—a piece that in its own way, and in a more varied force level, represents the new music ensemble equivalent of the sound of the traditional Turkish instrument zurna. The zurna can be described as the grandfather of oboe, with a very nasal, complex and extremely loud sound (one can hardly hear the bass drum when they are played together). Through the instrumentation selected I wanted to create a super polyphonic zurna, with a huge range and added expressional variance. The timbral qualities of zurna have been imprinted on the work’s aggressive sections. I have synthesized the raw qualities (rhythm and pitch) of the Balkan and Turkish folk music that use this instrument in a no-holds-barred fashion that will jolt, slap and hopefully shock. In the contrasting soft section(s) I have created a warped version of Ottoman classical court music, which is very much like slow sufi or dervish music.
