Name: If And Only If by Nathan Thatcher
Duration: 8 min 2 s
Description: A piece written for and performed by yMusic.

the ending of this is like Billy the Kid visiting Philip Glass in a rainstorm

this is one of my favorite pieces from you so far, man. really great.

Be Thou My Vision

DELTA – MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA IV (2014)

A piece written for and performed by yMusic.

If And Only If

This is a prelude for solo piano, and I wrote it for Rrita. Available for purchase at http://willhealymusic.com/merch/prelude-for-rrita

Prelude for Rrita

59'11 (f. Ryan Champagne)

Infinite

TONUS – MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA VI (2019)

Rural New England in the 19th century was a place filled with magic. For many of the faithful, the line between religion and folklore was practically non-existent. They believed in ghosts who guarded buried treasure. They used witching sticks to divine objects hidden deep in the earth. They told stories of shape-shifting toads and plough-boys who talk with God in the woods. Joseph Smith posited a world where the earth and the heavens could intersect. He used a seer stone to dig for treasure—and then used it to translate the golden plates, pulling scripture out of a hat. He engineered a theology in which the material world, rather than standing in opposition to godliness, serves as a conduit to it. You could dig up a rock from deep in the ground and then use it to penetrate heaven. 

Isn’t that what we do with our instruments? We take these objects made of earth—wood and metal usually—and try to pierce the veil. Nowadays we tend to shy away from magic, preferring a more buttoned-up, corporate Christianity. In this work, I want to pay homage to a charismatic Mormonism—earnest, folksy, shimmering, exuberant. All the things I hope God is too.

Seer Stone

a suite for cello in 5 movements

I.	Spectral; very slow and free
II.	Driving, biting
III.	Volatile
IV.	Sardonic, fast
V.	Introspective, worshipful

I'm smitten with Paul's remarks in 1 Corinthians 13. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part: but then shall I know even as also I am known.” I like the humanity in it. No, we don't really have any clue what we're doing here, but we still cling to hope in a clarity and a divinity not yet fully available to us. 

I wanted to examine that murky mid-way space between mortal and divine existence. The cello provides the lens. I’ve set the work in mirror structure, with opposing movements reflecting and transmuting one another; the first and fifth movements are brothers, as are the second and fourth. The third movement serves as a linchpin, summarizing and expanding the overall thematic tension of the work.

The suite opens with numinous, ghostly lyricism. It suggests the intangible and the spiritual, that foggy space around the veil. The second movement smacks down to earth; gritty, angsty, and disorienting, with a hiccuping engine that propels it forward. The middle movement inhabits the chasm between both worlds, never sure which one it belongs to. Gestures spill out impetuously, spanning extremes of timbre, volume, and range. Silence is just as vital to the musical fabric as the various shards that pierce it. The fourth movement, a rhythmic pizzicato, has moved beyond frustration to a kind of wry cynicism. It glances around briefly and smirks. The final movement, slow and reverent, is a crossing through. What we once saw shrouded in mystery is now presented in clarity. It worships, rests, and then ascends.

If And Only If

Nathan Thatcher

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