Nick Virzi

Flute, Clarinet, Electric Guitar, Percussion, Violin, Viola, and Cello

Composer's Note:

Six Silver Rings of (((Aquamarine))) uses numerical systems and symmetrical forms to express poetic images related to color, time, nature, space, and emotion. The piece is divided into nine sections that form a three-part chiasmic ring, in which a rhythmic framework used in the first half of the piece is repeated in retrograde and reorchestrated in the second half. The music in each section is mirrored in its retrograde counterpart as both a reflection of the rhythmic structure and an inversion of the poetic imagery. For example, the "Orb." section on page 6 of the score uses the text "Eternal, heavenly -- like leaping flecks of water, from a steadily flowing stream." Its counterpart, ".Orb" on page 16, uses the text "Revolving, sparkling, like a nebula of stars, twinkling in the shadows of space." Both sections use the same rhythmic materials, the second being a variation on the first that reorchestrates the same rhythms in retrograde.
The piece ends at the center of the retrograded rhythmic framework, leaving the out the final sections of the complete form. Ending the piece here is intended to place formal significance at the centerpiece of the second half rather than a more traditional climax, which usually occurs near the end of a work. The climax of the entire piece occurs at the center of the complete form, where the forward and retrograded rhythmic framework meet in a loud attack and long resonance. These decisions are meant to reconcile the contrasting formal implications between the Fibonacci sequence's golden ratio and the chiasmic ring structure's central focus.