Web of Indra [1993] takes its title from a Hindu legend mentioned in an interview with Joseph Campbell I heard on the radio. The 'Web of Indra' of legend is a matrix of jewels in which each jewel contains a reflection of the entire web. The metaphor very nicely described the musical structure of the piece I was writing and since I was also experimenting with some South Indian-influenced ideas of altering melodic, rhythmic (and harmonic) tempi independently it seemed highly appropriate.
Like the mythical Indra’s Web, the work has a fractal structure in that the overall form of the music has the same proportions as the elements it is made from: the rhythms, melodies, harmonies etc. Fractals are forms that display the quality of self-similarity – the same kind of structures at every scale. A simple example is the Koch Snowflake, which is built by starting with an equilateral triangle, removing the inner third of each side, building another equilateral triangle at the location where the side was removed, and then repeating the process indefinitely.
First Performed: Magnetic Pig at the BIG MAGNETIC PIG GIG Fly By Night Club April 1993
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