The concept for this piece comes from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, a collection of words invented by John Koenig that “aims to fill a hole in the [English] language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for.” The title for this
piece comes from the definition for “the meantime.”

the meantime
n. the moment of realization that your quintessential future self isn’t ever going to show up, which forces the role to fall upon the understudy, the gawky kid for whom nothing is easy, who spent years mouthing
their lines in the wings before being shoved into the glare of your life, which is already well into its second act.

This piece was commissioned by the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival for the Callisto Quartet, who premiered the piece at St. Hugo of the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in June 2019.

This recording features the Aizuri Quartet, recorded by Andrés Villalta at Princeton University in November 2020.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: the meantime (2019) // Aizuri Quartet

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist. Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds her PhD in Composition from Princeton University.