Splitting the Atom

#sparkling, #lyrical, #punchy, #fast (with slow), #energetic

Elegy Flywheel

The text for this piece comes from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." During the court scene, Portia, who's disguised as a young attorney, encourages Shylock to have mercy on Antonio, who earlier had entered an agreement requiring a pound of his flesh as payment.

This brief text provides an eloquent description of mercy and a striking contrast between earthly and heavenly power, without diminishing the importance of justice. "[Mercy] is an attribute of God himself and earthly power doth then show likest God's, when mercy seasons justice."

The Quality of Mercy - 2014

I enjoy listening to people speak, and I enjoy even more listening to them speak in languages foreign to my ears. Though I may not understand the meaning, the gesture and enunciation have their own beauty. Somewhere in this auditory interest it struck me that I had not heard many of humanity’s most sacred texts in their native tongues.

During my studies I was fortunate to befriend Angelos Mitsios, a graduate student from Konitsa, Greece. Music took both of us to Oklahoma, and afforded us the leisure to explore each other’s aesthetic and faith. It was during this time the idea of creating a work based on the original language of the New Testament piqued my interest. Angelos agreed to recite passages from each Gospel, as well as provide a couple chants from the Greek Orthodox tradition he thought complemented the verses best.

What began as simple curiosity yielded a spiritual journey. "From Sacred Texts" is my offering.

From Sacred Texts - Stereo Version

'Olivier’s Birds: A journey to the mountain' is a triphonic, fixed-media composition that was created to pay homage to Olivier Messiaen—an artist who has also been my teacher.

It was created from field recordings at Bryce Canyon (one of Messiaen’s sources of inspiration for 'Des canyons aux étoiles…'), Mount Messiaen (the place dedicated to him in response), the sound of stars, and audio files from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology online database. The birdsongs used in this movement are the songs most referenced in Messiaen’s 'Des canyons aux étoiles…'

Birdsong is a universally loved sound, and in that way, it is a very human sound. Its manipulation is the thrust of the drama in this piece, which ultimately contrasts terrestrial (birdsong, rocks, water) and celestial (stars) sounds.

'Olivier’s Birds' is the second movement of a three-movement electroacoustic wind trio.

Olivier's Birds: A journey to the mountain (stereo mix MP3)

I Almost Remember began as an experiment with time, musical and physical space, the relationship between composer and performer, and independence/dependence between performers. The arrhythmic sections, which are primarily bowed, create an ethereal effect that disorients the listener’s perception of time. The musical spaces of harmony and phrasing are stretched and relaxed, and the physical space of having four players on one vibraphone that slowly branch off to different instruments creates a visual representation of this.

The first and last sections are fairly indeterminate, leaving more decisions to the performers; whereas the middle section is stricter to the score, leaning more on the composers’ intentions than the performers. And even though the performers are playing on the same instrument in the first and last sections, their parts are played and heard independently from each other; this contrasts with the middle section where physically the players are independent, in that they are each playing their own instruments, but they are playing in time with each other rhythmically, making their metaphysical relationship more dependent by nature.

At the time I was struck by the idea that both positive and negative experiences (particularly when we are young) shape the person we turn into; but the older we get these “fundamental” experiences become exceedingly vague. How odd it is that these moments, no matter how brief, change us to the core; they change the way we think, the way we feel, the way we interact with the world, the way we perceive ourselves, and what we believe, but these memories are often nothing more than a hazy recollection.

Splitting the Atom

Joshua D. Tomlinson