Apr 15, 2017
Maffe returned to the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, for the first time since Cajolery of the Forest in 2013, for the premiere of Maffe's piece for string orchestra, "Catacombs of a Rose". The music was reduced to a string quartet instrumentation for the performance but still held the main object of interest, the tonality.
Maffe invented a new modality (musical scale) for the construction of his work which he calls the 'Maffian Mode'. Among other functionality, the mode is an octatonic scale which aims to shift the tendency of dominant chords to come to rest equally on both an aeolian and ionian tonality (a mixture between the major and minor scales).
After the concert, Maffe discussed the development and implementation of his scale as well as general thoughts on music philosophy and composition in a formal Q&A forum which featured a selection of other composers, performers, and music professionals.