RELATIVITY (2020)
For Bassoon Trio
Duration ca. 8:00
PROGRAM NOTES
“Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all.”
- Jules Verne
Relativity was composed during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, at a time when in-person gatherings (including musical performances) were prohibited across much of the world. The piece is, consequently, concerned with the idea of distance and its effects on music. Relativity can be performed with the three players separated by varying amounts of physical distance – up to, and including, being performed virtually via teleconferencing software like Zoom or Skype. The further apart the performers are, in general, the more disjunct their parts will become from one another. This is intentional. The range of listening experiences for Relativity span from a closely coordinated performance to one where the players are separated by a second or more, creating overlapping, kaleidoscopic patterns of fast sixteenth-note figuration. The only limitation on the amount of distance between the performers is that they must be able to see one another (either in person or virtually).
Commissioned by Tomo Bassoon Trio, and premiered virtually in a concert sponsored by the Korean Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, CA (January 2021).
SCORE PREVIEW
