Time Pieces (2024)

for Violin, Percussion Quartet, Piano, and Narrator

Duration: 27 min

 
 

MOVEMENTS

I: TIME AWAKES

II: SUNDIAL

III: HOURGLASS

IV: GEARS AND BELLS

V: STILL POINT – LULLABY

VI: QUARTZ CRYSTAL

VII: TIME SLEEPS

Program Note

The concept for Time Pieces began with a question - how is our perception of time influenced by modern time-keeping technology? We live in an age in which time management has become a societal preoccupation. At any moment, we can orient ourselves in time precisely down to the minute, second, or even millisecond. What is by nature an unbroken flow, we now experience as a multitude of seconds ticking away.

But how might a person living before the invention of mechanical clocks – before time ever ‘ticked’ - experience time? Or before the invention of hourglasses, or sundials? Did early humans even have a concept of passing time, or did they exist in a state of unfiltered connection with the present?

I set out to write a piece that captures our history of time-keeping and our millennia-long journey to feel some control over the persistent stream of change. The story naturally has a propulsive trajectory – as we travel forward through history, our perception of time becomes sliced into increasingly smaller units, building in intensity. The effect is a gradual ramping-up of tension towards the end of the work, suggesting that perhaps our drive to conquer time has created as many problems as it has solved.

At the midpoint of the piece, an expanse of stillness unfolds. The purpose of this still point is to provide a counter-image, a view of connection and presence in the modern world. It is a movement honoring the beauty of the hours that slip by unnoticed when they are shared with someone we love. I chose to quote a lullaby melody in this section as a symbol of love, sung from a parent to a child. Witnessing a baby experience the world as “only now” – neither reacting to the past nor anticipating the future – we are reminded that we are all born with an unfiltered connection to the present.

Performances

Premiere: 1/2025 - Natalie Lin-Douglas, Brady Spitz, Diana Loomer, Morgan Tao, Tyler Domangue, Islei Hammer

Recordings

Anticipated 2026 - Natalie Lin-Douglas, Brady Spitz, Wesley Ducote, Diana Loomer, Michael Metz, Louis Raymond-Kolker