Thimble Trance

A repetitive, close-woven piece for harpsichord and fixed electronics, written for the harpsichordist Goška Isphording — for some years Głowicka’s neighbour in Eindhoven, and the reason several harpsichord works exist at all.

The instrument is treated less as a keyboard than as a plucking mechanism: short identical gestures accumulate until the ear stops hearing individual notes and starts hearing the pattern they make, with the electronics extending the resonance the harpsichord itself cannot sustain.

It has since entered the repertoire of the British harpsichordist Jane Chapman, who performed it at the York Spring Festival of New Music in 2013 alongside Saariaho’s Jardin Secret II and Ligeti’s Continuum.

A companion piece, White Dust (2010), is also for harpsichord and electronics.