Reconciling Duality

Reconciling Duality explores various incarnations of contrasting elements: emotions (anger and frustration against vulnerability), textures (aggressively loud tremolo chords against isolated and delicate notes), and even the notation itself (traditional notation alongside free rhythm and improvisation). When confronted with opposing ideas one often attempts to find a balance — sometimes through compromise or assimilation, but occasionally one must acknowledge that a blending is not possible, that the elements must remain separate entities, coexisting in a perpetual truce while discovering the beauty of such diversity.

The piece was written for the 2016 Class Axe Workshop, produced by the Canadian Music Centre and the Guitar Society of Toronto. It was premiered by Adam Batstone on December 15, 2016, at the CMC in Toronto.

Shelley Marwood is a Canadian composer whose output spans orchestra, wind ensemble, opera, choir, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, with music that is frequently narrative, theatrical, comedic, and visually evocative. Her works have been commissioned and performed across North America and Europe by ensembles including the Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Windsor symphony orchestras and Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, and her guitar writing has been praised for balancing "intensity and serenity with colorful gestures of beauty and restraint" (Take Effect Reviews). A winner of the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music and the University of Toronto Choral Composition Competition, she holds a DMA from the University of Toronto.