tools
(2003)
sopranino, tenor and bass recorders
flute
trumpet
piano
violin
clarinet
cello
piano
clarinet
bassoon
viola
piano
clarinet
violin
cello
piano
percussion
Duration: 9'
Movements:
Hexnut
Dual Track Grinder
Wire Mesh
Hole Punch
Pneumatic Screed
Pneumatic Screed Extension Handle
Pneumatic Screed Extension Handle Cover
Telescopic Ladder
Stripped Hexnut
Winner Henriette Bosmans Prize, 2003, Netherlands 
Available on Tools (KLR 011)
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“(Tools is) brutal and humorous."
GeNeCo
Score available from Donemus Publishing
Score available from Donemus Publishing
Mixed quintet
Score available from Donemus Publishing
Mixed sextet
Score available from Donemus Publishing
“Brutaal en humorous”
- GeNeCo
Program Notes:
Not too long ago I found myself sitting next to a composer after a concert with a work of his for string quartet. His piece had made statements, then have silences, then other statements would come. The choice of musical material, the pacing of the development and the timing of the silences were combined in a brilliant way to keep one guessing what would happen next. This all in an expressive and beautiful piece of music.
At the table he spoke to me about how silences can be very effective to give space for the listener to understand the music. But the timing and the length of the silences are crucial aspects to its effectiveness. They must be carefully planned. His generosity to simply talk about these things when we didn't know each other struck me greatly. That composer was Paul Termos.
In Tools, a group of 9 pieces, I have taken his suggestions about silence to heart. My intention was to present short bursts of music which are highly energetic, detailed and sometimes complex. Other qualities intended are virtuosic, fun, intense, rhythmic, quirky and surprising.
Other strong influences on Tools are the Torture Garden works by John Zorn and Naked City and also the Swedish metal band, Meshuggah.
Available on:
Tools (KLR 011)
"Tools, is a good introduction to McGowan’s musical world. Written in 2003 for the band Hexnut, which came together especially for this composition, Tools is a sequence of nine pieces, some of them extremely short, lasting a total of eight minutes and scored for the unlikely instrumentation of recorders, flute, trumpet and piano. “My intention”, he says, “was to present short bursts of music which are highly energetic, detailed and sometimes complex. Other qualities intended are virtuosic, intense, rhythmic, fun, quirky and surprising”. Tools is certainly all of this and more. There is a high energy feel to the piece, the sort of vertigo that comes from playing very fast; besides, the musicians seem to be having fun – in the manic second piece (Dual Track Grinder), say, or the copycat rhythms of the fourth (Hole Punch). Fun, too, and tricky to bring off, are the layered rhythms of the fifth piece (Telescopic Ladder), a precisely notated four voice proportional canon with each successive voice playing at the speed ratio of 4 to 3 of the previous one. The whole canon eventually modulates both faster in speed and higher in pitch, reaching a frenzy. Despite the generally raucous atmosphere, an important component in this piece is the effective use of silence to offset the short pieces of music, an aspect that McGowan says was influenced by a conversation with the late Paul Termos, several months before he passed away. Tools won the Henriette Bosmans Prize from the GeNeCo Dutch Composers Bond in 2003; the jury described it as “brutal and humorous”." - Bob Gilmore