Orchestration

for clarinet and bass clarinet, cello and voice, electric guitar, and accordion

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Duration

8 minutes

 

Commissioned by/Premiere

Commissioned by the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting, written for the AREPO Ensemble. Premiere postponed, new date TBA in 2025

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Note

In January I was hiking in the hills near Berkeley when I met a magnificent tree positioned on an east-ward facing slope. This tree had 6 trunks emerging from its initial stem in a way that reminded me of fingers reaching up to grasp hold of something. As I came up to this tree, the sun was just about to set past the slope but had temporarily positioned itself perfectly in between the tree fingers, making it appear as if the tree hand was holding a small but bright ball of light. The sight was beautiful. The sun seemed so small in relation to this tree that had grabbed hold of it, but only for an instant. As long as it took me to admire how such an allignment flipped my of the marvelous heavenly body of the sun and the humble tree, one of many in a forest populated with millions, the sun had started to dip beyond the slope and only the memory of this experience remained. This piece is a tribute to those moments when forces beyond our reach naturally bring unattached elements from the periphery into focus, aligning them in a way that brings us new perspectives, and producing a temporary moment of clarity.

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Score