In Sterbende Garten (Decaying or Dying Gardens) Bent Sorensen employs specific compositional methods in order to depict biodegradation of plants, refraction of sound, and memory deterioration in each of the three movements of the work, respectively. He obscures the formal design of the first movement, and the stylistic genres on which the second and third movements are based, by diffusing the melody of the violin solo through heterophonically placed orchestral lines that replicate the violin solo with variation in duration, timbre, pitch and rhythm. This results in saturation that, through the projection of pitches by the orchestra, produces diatonic implications.;In the first movement, Sorensen employs motivic replication and transformation that produce the saturation that clouds the musical surface. These motivic copies are produced with slight variation in rhythm and pitch, and placed simultaneously against the generating motive. The application of these copies results in varying degrees of depictions of degenerating plant life. In the second movement, Sorensen utilizes the transference of the "choral series"---a series of thirds that contain a half-step relationship between components of a third to the next concurrent third---as a way of representing the refraction of sound. In the last movement, Sorensen employs phased relationships between different strands of the orchestra as a way of representing a clear or a vague perception of a specific memory. While Sorensen references each depiction, the obscuring techniques that depict the degenerative associations are similar, but the generating motive is different. Along with the copying or transferring of musical figures, pedal tones and glissandos obscure the musical surface, adding to the saturation of the work.;In each movement Sorensen alludes to a diatonic framework for pitch generation, but more specifically he utilizes centric notes that result from the overlapping of vertically produced similarities derived from the heterophonic placement of motivic gestures. The employment of repetition and contextual reinforcement of pitch through pedal tones and glissandos enhance the centric nature of the work.
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