Runic

for sinfonietta

About

While composing this piece, I was undergoing a period of daily meditations on the Elder Futhark, the oldest of the runic alphabets. Through my meditations, I came to understand the runes as a complete symbolic system that describes everything in the universe. But since the 'true' meanings of the runes have largely been lost to time, the esoteric meanings I have found in any given rune are entirely idiosyncratic. Truth be told, I believe an equally complete and idiosyncratic system could have been found in any set of symbols, including the Latin alphabet, numbers, dingbats, and random scribbles on a restaurant napkin.

In other words, there is no meaning in the runes themselves. The meaning is in the runer. Each movement of Runic represents a rune, but exactly which one is something you'll have to delve into your own runes to find out.

Acknowledgements

Runic was commissioned by Randers Kammerorkester with conductor David Riddell who premiered it on 22 April 2026 at Værket, Randers, Denmark.

Composition Year

2025

Duration

8′ 00″

Instrumentation

Flute

Oboe

Clarinet in B-flat

Alto Saxophone

Bassoon

Horn in F

Trumpet in C

2 1st Violins

2 2nd Violins

2 Violas

2 Celli

Contrabass