1.1.1.1 / 1.1.1.1 / 2 perc.harp.pno / 1.1.1.1.1
14’20”
composed 2014
premiered by the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music New Music Ensemble (Bloomington, Indiana)
Composer’s Note
The first movement of Through Cloudy & Cracked Lenses, “Distant and Blurry Points of Light,” began as a simple exercise in tonal experimentation utilizing a progression of perfect fifths. This progression was reflected along three different vertical axes, much in the same manner that the three mirrors within a kaleidoscope reflect small beads and bits of glass. Each harmonic reflection coincided with specific repetitions of the open fifth, based upon multiples of the prime numbers 2, 3, and 5; and each instance was reflected at a set interval - the octave, the perfect fourth, and the perfect fifth. At key moments within the movement each reflection “cracks,” resulting in the perfect fifth being reflected at dissonant intervals from that point forth. While the core structure of this movement is rooted in prime-number proportions and vertical reflections, the music composed on top of this structure is highly evocative and impressionistic in nature. The movement aurally portrays blurry and unfocused ideas that, as they come into focus, become representations of striking and troubling visual imagery. The “blurry points of light” are unrecognizable from a distance; yet once visible they are too horrible to turn away from. It is in this manner that the first movement becomes an abstract representation of a long-coming traumatic event, one that could be completely avoidable and yet, through either circumstance or design, is arrived at with blistering speed.
The second movement, “Blind, In Pieces, and At Peace,” comes immediately on the heels of the first movement. The movement begins with simple repeating fragments in the vibraphone, harp, piano, and crotales. These fragments repeat without change - shards of music derived from the previous movement’s progression. Two additional elements are layered on top of these fragments: anxious, fleeting musical ideas that attempt - and fail - to reconcile the music from the prior movement; and a simple thirty-two note minor-mode melody presented in the strings, spread out over the entire movement so as to minimize all sense of time. Like the first movement, events in this movement coincide with multiples of prime numbers; unlike the first movement, no attempt is ever made to progress the music forward. The second movement is distant, haunting, and incredibly static – an unchanging, yet strangely peaceful reality that stands in direct contrast to the trauma of the prior movement.
Composed for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music New Music Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. David Dzubay.