Premiered on March 1, 2020 by the Lincoln Trio.
Presented by the Howland Chamber Music Circle, Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY.
Time is the Sea We Swim In (2020) is an exploration of our changing perceptions of time. How it can seem to speed up as we get older, or slow down during times of intense “being in the now”.
I think of it as a life-cycle piece. I wrote it after my mother died. The overall form is an ashes-to-ashes crescendo-diminuendo. The music begins similarly with a slow breathing in and breathing out gesture. Cello emerges with a pleading call in high harmonics. Slow phrases speed to faster rhythmic patterns, and then twice as fast. Palindromes echo the crescendo-diminuendo form in miniature, for me, this gives a sense of something familiar, yet different this time, like memory. The music emerges from its dark/stark realities to life-affirming celebration and acceptance.
Expanded from a version for accordion, cello, and guitar.
Score Excerpts
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