Changes (score)

for Javanese Gamelan. Changes was written in 1981 for the English Gamelan Orchestra. The intention was to write a work which would respect the traditional character of gamelan playing and also be authentically English. The melodic structure is based on the English system of change-ringing. In each successive group of six notes, the positions of adjacent notes are exchanged. The result is a cyclic sequence of seventy-two notes; the second half is the inversion of the first. This seventy-two note sequence is used as a melodic ground.