instrumental trio

Composer's note:  Tathata for string trio was composed during the summer of 2007. It was written for and is dedicated to the Athabasca String Trio who premiered it in October of 2007 at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York. The title, from the Pali language, means suchness -- a way of experiencing reality without the barrier of language and concepts.

In one movement of about eleven minutes, Tathata, falls into three large sections, the first beginning with a viola solo accompanied by a tolling A in the violin and cello. This soon grows into three-part counterpoint, but the idea of repeated notes proves to be ubiquitous throughout much of the piece. The middle section, marked Tranquillo, features a long melody in the violin. Near it's end, the music moves to its highest register to lead into the final section marked Con Moto. Featuring the most varied, continuous, and dramatic music of the piece, this section builds inexorably, finally leading to a version of the viola's opening tune, now played in three part unison. The final measures of the piece, again featuring the repeated A, now over a sustained F# in the violin, quietly dissolve into silence.

Composer's note: My Piano Trio No.2, “The Blossom”, takes its cue from the image of a flower’s growth. Its three movements chart a course from frozen symmetry to effulgent bloom. On a purely musical level, these metaphors are worked out via an ongoing exploration of aural symmetry.

1. “Frozen”. Here all is symmetry. Symmetries of intervals that generate a ladder of pitches “frozen” in particular registers. Symmetries of time, the music following a strict ternary form, with palindromes abounding. This movement is a “seed”, a template from which more dynamic, propulsive art can emerge.

2. “Thawing”. The music begins to branch out, literally, with long arching lines that become ever more florid and detailed. Its aching, yearning quality suggests a will to grow and transcend constraints. Its symmetries now are more of gesture than structure. The strict abstract constraints of the first movement melt under the merging life force.

3. “In Bloom”. Lines have become free and racing; they create a delicate tangled web. The music rushes like water or wind, but it leaves a trace like sprouting tendrils.