Ar-gard (Air)

Ar-gard is a term for “Air” in Thai. This music is about my imagination of the Air that surrounds us in different emotions such as happiness, success, or regret. For me, I feel the air around us makes us feel that way.

In the process of composing this piece I used the group of notes from a set

(0, 3, 6, 7) or consider as a diminished triad with raised 5th note to flavor the colors of sound. The reason that I choose this group of notes is that this material can develop and expand to a variety of musical figures based on the idea of feeling and imagination in human beings. Even though we have many feelings, it is the air that makes us feel that way. So the set (0, 3, 6, 7) is represented the air that can change to many forms of ideas, but still has a unity of musical structure.

This composition has three movements. Each part is composed by the development of the main idea and is transformed into a variety of musical idioms and structures. Thai elements are used in the composition such as a pentatonic scale in many modes, or the juxtaposition texture in Thai style. This piece is written in contemporary language and style.