Flute duo
SKU:
P2.10021
Composed by
Cornelius Boots. Chamber
music, 20th century.
Published by Potenza
Music (P2.10021).
The second part
of the Chthonic Flute
Suite commissioned by
Areon Flutes in 2012.
This suite has two main
inspirations:
ideologically it draws
guidance from the book
The Dream and the
Underworld (1979) by
James Hillman (1926-2011)
and musically it explores
the textural
possibilities of a flute
ensemble within the
context of the heavy
chamber music style I
have developed with
Edmund Welles: the bass
clarinet quartet since
1996. This style draws
virtuosic precision from
the classical realm;
innovation and texture
from jazz; and power,
rhythm and overall
perspective from rock and
metal. The term chthonic
[thon-ik] generally means
underworld. However,
Hillman thoroughly
elaborates that its true
meaning extends below the
earth and beyond it into
invisible, non-physical
and far distant psychic
realms: the deeper
mysteries of the
invisible. The duo is
divided into two
sections: Nekyia and
Hypnoia. Each of these is
a Greek myth-nerd term
for some key aspect of an
archetypal descent into
the underworld. In fact,
nekyia is a term that
specifically means
archetypal descent as one
finds in myths across the
ages from Dante to the
Greeks and beyond.
Hillman sees a lack of
sufficient nekyia myths
in our modern culture,
yet our popular heroes in
films and music are shady
underworld characters.
Dante's underworld was
our culture's last, and
it was imagined even
before the Renaissance
had properly begun. Our
ethnic roots reach back
to great underworld
configurations: the
Celtic Dagda or Cerunos,
the Germanic Hel, and the
Biblical Sheol. All have
faded... (p.64) Hyponoia
is a more subtle term
used by Plato that refers
to an undersense or a
deeper meaning. The
search for undersense is
what we express in common
speech as the desire to
understand. We want to
get below what is going
on and see its basis, its
fundamentals, how and
where it is grounded. (p.
137) This deeper
understanding is one of
the motivations and
constant characteristics
of the underworld
descent: but the
discoveries made and
experiences experienced
are not always as they
seem to be. Hillman
recommends over and over
that we see and see into
each thing for what it
is, and not force a
dayworld perspective onto
dream images and
occurrences. As a duo
movement, the term
enantiodromia (counter
enantio, and running
dromia) is particularly
appropriate as it is a
grounding principle by
which Jung understands
the regulative function
of opposites. As Hillman
tends to turn things on
their metaphorical heads,
he fleshes out dualism
and oppositionalism in
such a way that in the
underworld this actually
becomes a unifying
principle: If you go far
enough with any one
movement, a
countermovement will set
in...The way up and the
way down are one and the
same: the manifestation
of one power by opposite
forces. (p. 76) This
implies a union of the
two opposites, a
conjunction as contrasted
with an opposition. There
are two voices but they
are both flutes; there
are two contrasting
halves to the piece, yet
they balance each other
even in their
differences.
Running This Realm
