The start of the third movement is the climax of the composition. It is a breakthrough, an apotheosis, a wave of time-dilating reflections or as the great 6th century Chinese Buddhist scholar Tiantai described it, ‘three thousand realms in a single moment of life”
  
The hammer blows at the start and the pungent sound of open strings, evokes the rhythm of that resolutely determined 6 syllable chant of Nicherin Buddhism “Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo.” 
From the outset the music is hot and fiery and quickly develops into multiple streams of musical discourse, held together under great tension. Maybe this is the approach to the threshold of life, in which the past is said to replay in an instant. In any case, there is a threshold and a resolution to this moment as the true self theme reemerges, this time stronger and with much greater warmth, now bathed in the balm of piano scales, the hammer blows now softened and transformed. The ending is feminine, pulsing and in balance. Listen out for the special ‘seagull’ sounds made by the cello.

True Self 3rd movement

Jeremy Arden