From Time to Eternity for chamber ensemble (2014)
Program Note
Written for violin, tenor sax, percussion, and piano in 2014, this piece for mixed chamber quartet examines the theme of untimely death. I began composing it when I heard about the sudden death of a childhood friend. I drew a line of what I felt, and this feeling became crystallized as the architecture of the piece.
During the composition process, I strove to balance the frustration of untimely death with the joy of fond remembrance. From Time to Eternity’s timbres and structure reflect this dichotomy. Sections alternate between muddy darkness and warm light.The title comes from the writings of Quaker and philosopher William Penn, who also struggled with untimely death in the early days of Pennsylvania’s colony, and wrote in Fruits of Solitude, “For death is no more than a turning over of us from time to eternity.” Although the quote reflects Christian belief, it resonated with me primarily as a physical truth. The matter in our bodies was manufactured by collapsing stars, and someday the dust of our bodies will return to that celestial state. For the briefest moment however, we experience time, and from that springs our experiences of love, story, anxiety, memory, and even music itself. Then, in a moment, we return to the eternal nature of unconscious matter.