Music / chamber / zero sum game
Zero Sum Game
for clarinet, violin, viola, cello and piano
Zero Sum Game began life as a simple set of chords and an intent to create something fresh and vibrant for the fabulous musicians of Omega Ensemble. Through many versions and re-writes, the piece eventually took shape as one core musical idea travelling through a wide variety of musical contexts, thrown around the ensemble and teased apart in a playful and exploratory manner. The 'game' of the piece sees the five musicians in competition with one another, engaged in a musical tug-of-war as they spar and team up to demand the foreground. Eventually, the high energy and tension of the opening disintegrates, giving way to a section of more delicacy and intimacy in which musical lines overlap and interweave to create subtler textures, before a fiery rush to the finish line.