Fast Flies Meanwhile The Irreparable Hour As Point To Point Our Charmed Round We Trace

Instrumentation: piano

Duration: 9′ 30″

Program note:

This work was written for pianist Mabel Kwan. The lengthy title of this work comes from a passage in Virgil’s ancient poem Georgics. I chose this title as it references the fleeting, relentless motion of time (tempus fugit). My own work calculates the passage of time through the perpetual emergence of sound (both pitch and noise) from the action of performance (exemplified in the transformations from shadow playing, or mimed performance, to real playing). Time is also measured through broken clusters and pulses that at times seem grounded and at other times are interrupted through rhythmic spasms. I cannot help but also wonder if this piece is, on some level, also a meditation upon futility and on the ephemeral, transitory nature of the act of artistic creation. So many of the gestures that are built into this work are thwarted or undermined in deliberate ways. The muting of the strings towards the end of the work is the most obvious example.

performances by Yumi Suehiro

audio

studio recording

video

score download/purchase

Fast Flies Meanwhile – Score

Full score with instructions

$30.00

Please contact me for download instructions after purchase.

Score (excerpts)

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