Andrew Toovey - Ate for ample ensemble

Ate (pronounced are-tae) for large ensemble piece (16 players) was written in 1986 when I was a post-graduate (MA and MPhil) with Jonathan Harvey at Sussex University. You can follow the full score while listening to the music, which has been very slightly edited to fit the required 10 minutes. The title Ate is the Greek word used by Aeschylus to describe Ruin, Destruction and Infatuation. Ate grew out of my fascination with the Stations of the Cross fourteen painting series by the American artist Barnett Newman. The powerful expression of these paintings seems to transcend issues of style and skill, and explore the depths of Kabbalistic mystery on its own terms. Just as newman's Stations of the Cross are neither descriptions nor pictorial allegories - so is Ate removed from the Newman paintings, only the proportions and the sense of power are taken up. The structure evolves not through conventional techniques of development and variation, but rather through a series of sharply defined sections, each assuming the role of a 'station' or 'panel' and headed by a recurring musical gesture of stark dramatic impact. At each reiteration, this column of sound differs slightly in its constituent elements, and is followed by solo or group (brass, strings or woodwind) interjections.

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