Meditation: 2017.01.23-31 (for string quartet, piano, percussion, and voice)

Recording of premier performance at Illinois Wesleyan University, March 8, 2018.

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In 2009, I began composing "Meditations", a body of work that embraced a very simple working mode: in one sitting, during one day, one thought will become one new work. "Meditations" were intended to counter the system-based complexity that dominated the rest of my output.

Meditation: 2017.01.23-31 is a collection of four "Meditations" pieces. Written in a brief creative burst in January 2017, these movements share a common musical language and were similarly inspired by the current American political landscape. Each movement takes its title from the writings of a political or cultural theorist whom I believe to be of particular importance at this moment: Étienne de La Boétie, James Baldwin, Theodore Adorno, Nick Srnicek, and Alex Williams.
Musically, each movement explores a different dynamic between the individual performers and the ensemble format.

The first movement, ALL THESE INDIGNITIES, SUCH AS THE VERY BEASTS OF THE FIELD WOULD NOT ENDURE, is a setting of La Boétie’s 1548 “Discourse on Voluntary Servitude.” It is a very atmospheric, sparse movement in which musical events occur on a very long time scale that, based on human memory capacity, is typically reserved for phrasing and larger formal structures. Individual voices inhabit the same musical space, but do not rely upon a conductor (or a commonly-accepted tempo) to proceed together. Instead, the performers independently select their own tempi by measuring time relative to their respective bodily processes - heartbeats and breathing. The sonic effect - a perceptual lack of time - is reminiscent of many Eastern Buddhist temple music traditions, and the works of Earl Browne (American, 1926-2002).

The second movement, based on James Baldwin’s 1977 “PEOPLE CAN CRY MUCH EASIER THAN THEY CAN CHANGE”, is the most traditional movement of this piece. It is based on themes from Jean Sibelius’s (Finnish, 1865-1957) Violin Concerto in D Minor (Op. 47). It is the only movement that features thematic development. It gallops forward in a very linear fashion; it never looks back, and ends almost as quickly as it began. The performers begin in independent tempi, and gradually converge into unison on the final note.

The third movement, “DIFFICULTIES”, is a sort of gentle ¾ dance which the entire ensemble strums in unison, like a large guitar, but that stays put instead of waltzing about. Theodore Adorno (German, 1903-1969) was an eminent cultural critic, music theorist, and composer who famously critiqued Enlightenment conceptions of historical progress. I greatly admire his work, but he would be dismayed to be included in this program, particularly alongside Sibelius, whom he heavily criticizes in this 1964 lecture on 20th century music, “Five Difficulties in Writing the Truth.” Apologies to Herr Adorno.

The final movement, “THE FUTURE ISN’T WORKING”, sets selections from Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams’ 2016 utopian manifesto, Inventing the Future. All performers resound homophonically together, like a collective organ. Individual performers rotate to set the group’s tempo, requiring a deep level of communicative harmony between group members. The static tones and the frequent expanding and contraction of time produces a tense but hypnotic effect that frustrates our desire for musical ideas to evolve forward in time.

Just as the "Meditations" works have been an important project in reinvigorating my approach to writing and listening to music, these authors have assisted me in gathering and refining my thoughts in order to be a more engaged, politically productive individual. Thus, there is a strong personal harmony between the textual and musical thoughts that are paired in this piece.

All proceeds will be donated to PATH Crisis Center (www.pathcrisis.org), YWCA McLean County (www.ywcamclean.org), and the Immigration Project (www.immigrationproject.org). These are non-profit organizations that are fighting for suicide prevention services, immigrant rights, empowering women, and cash bail reform.