Social D[ist]ancing

2020

mixed ensemble

5’00”

During the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, we were allowed to leave our homes to walk for exercise once a day. We could do this alone or as a family group. Often, when walking on my own, I found that when I encountered another person coming in the other direction, an awkward kind of dance would take place as we tried to stay 2m apart from each other.

In this piece, a soloist improvises on a given collection of notes and, when another player arrives, they try to avoid playing notes within 2 semitones of each other. The rest of the ensemble (family group) arrives, at a distance, and engage harmonically with the two players. This happens five times in all.