meshulashim

meshulashim was commissioned by Transient Canvas. It was composed in Cambridge, Massachusetts and completed in August of 2018.

The piece is conceived quite abstractly as a play on the concept of Triangle (meshulashim means ‘triangles’ in Hebrew). At the most literal and simplistic sense, a musical triangle can be a sustained pitch joined by a rising and falling pitch. Those kinds of triangles exist in the piece in some abundance! Joined by “triangles” of amplitude, timbre, duration. One type of triangle may overlap or counterpoint with other types of triangles. As the piece progresses, the concept of Triangle eventually morphs into a larger concept of Palindrome, turning the entire piece into one large triangle.

— Osnat Netzer

Press

Netzer’s meshulashim (Hebrew for ‘triangles’) is a hushed yet colorful series of vignettes that use triadic harmonies, melodic contours, and crescendos to explore various ways of representing triangles in music. Her piece moves in a palindromic arc where smaller gestures soon overlap, creating one large pyramid of sound. After reaching its peak, the music slowly dwindles and Sharrock’s sensitive playing of widely spaced triads led to a breathtaking finish and lasting silence. Quiet hums of approval were heard in the audience.