WHAT WE WISH TO REMEMBER OF OURSELVES (2021)
Fl, Ob, Cl/B. Cl, Bsn, Piano
Duration ca. 8:00
PROGRAM NOTES
What We Wish to Remember of Ourselves was composed in Autumn, 2021, as the world – or at least the United States – was just beginning to emerge from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down life for much of the preceding two years. After a long hiatus, in-person concerts once again became a facet of everyday life. Like many others, I was weary of virtual musical events conducted over Zoom or YouTube, with their poor audio quality and limited interactivity. In this piece, I wanted to embrace the return to live, in-person listening by crafting something that was sonically immersive and which demanded constant communication between the performers. Consequently, much of the piece is not strictly metered – rather, the musicians are asked to listen and react to one another, crafting a musical environment that will be slightly different from performance to performance.
The title of the piece comes from a poem by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, a collaborator who read her work at the piece's premiere.
Commissioned by Decoda and ICEBERG New Music. Premiered by Decoda at Tenri Cultural Institute, NYC (April 2022).
SCORE PREVIEW
