Crystals
(on aloneness)
Ensemble
Singing Pianist
Duration
Determined by the performer.
Recording
Score
Notes
"Crystals: On Aloneness" evokes my journey into solitude during the isolating months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that most difficult first winter of 2020, I sought refuge in nude piano playing each evening before bed—a ritual that provided a sense of place amid the monotonous days that seemed to blur together. While the bitter aloneness of 2020 left me feeling cold and frost-bitten, I found peace in the stillness.
Throughout the piece, you'll hear repeated single-note figures facing abandonment while gaining strength and energy as the piece moves forward. Improvised sections allow the performer to meditate on aloneness within the piece, while passages of notated music depict my desire for structure amid the uncertainty of the time.
Included with this work is an accompanying poem by Geoffrey Nutter that is reflective of my friendship with Peter Dayton, who commissioned the work. As did many during the pandemic, Peter and I met on social media and became quick friends. Our conversations about art, music, sex, love, and relationships kindled a comforting friendship that felt familiar despite never meeting in person. The performer is instructed to incorporate Nutter's poem if they wish or to enjoy the poem as a companion to the composition.
My diary-style composition series "Crystals" offers musical fragments of my personal story to performers and listeners—essentially a breadcrumb trail of my life. My original nude improvisation of "Crystals: On Aloneness" is available to view on Vimeo.
Text
by Geoffrey Nutter
There was an adage you told me once.
You were my best friend and beloved, so I listened.
It was a series of words brought together, like friends,
words that in their plainness shined.
And though I don’t remember them,
I recall the despair that your presence
lifted from me with a touch that night, one of many,
when I lie awake, mind grinding away
like a millstone with nothing to grind.
You spoke the words that guided me through
and our eyes grew brilliant, and we walked
on the mossy earth among trees
as if among the gentle dead.
They asked for nothing,
but only seemed to offer what was
one moment under a giant blue sky.
Commissioned by
Peter Dayton and Douglas Johnson
(on peace)
Ensemble
Any instrumentalist or singer with writing and camera/photo prompts.
Duration
Determined by the performer.
Recording
Score
Notes
“Crystals: On Peace” was written for my dear friend Midori Samson’s contribution to The Peace Studio’s “100 Offerings of Peace” campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic. Midori Samson Celebrating children’s voices using music composition is an example of what peace means to us, and “Crystals (on Peace)” models the childlike play in our classrooms. Its structure is inspired by an activity where students write “I am” poems—like the one Midori wrote for “Crystals”—and compose musical gestures for each text line. “Crystals” is also a celebration of identity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians have lost their ability to connect with audiences in person. Camera angles in “Crystals” allow viewers to be up-close to Midori’s musicality and humanity, despite the physical distance that the pandemic has created between us.
Text
I am ___.
I can ___.
I offer ___.
I am ___.
I love ___.
I wish ___.
I fear ___.
I know ___.
I see ___.
I dream ___.
I create ___.
I am ___.
Commissioned by
The Peace Studio for the 100 Offerings of Peace Project
(on empathy)
Ensemble
Vibraphone and Piano
Duration
Determined by the performer(s).
Recordings
❦
Score
Notes
Crystals (on empathy) was written for an hour-long concert experience called "The Empathy Project”, which asked several composers to develop new works which loosely focus on the theme of "empathy". In Crystals, I aims to blur the lines between traditional roles delineated in typical concert music: performer to performer, performer to listener, composer to performer to listener, etc. with the goal of fostering empathy among the concert’s participants.
Crystals features a newly-commissioned text by American poet Geoffrey Nutter that is then broken up into four movements which can be arranged by the performers and placed throughout the concert in whatever arrangement they choose. Crystals also incorporates elements of play, improvisation, verbal and/or non-verbal communication, and on-the-spot decision making combined with traditional musical notation to create four unique movements that are unified by a common theme of love.
Text
by Geoffrey Nutter
What if we were born immune to fire?
Some, I’ve heard, were born that way.
Others might become so over time.
You can’t understand them,
but they bear you up in their hands
through the flame.
To live in time is to watch all thoughts
the god of Love has posed
arrange themselves into star-like crystals—
You can’t understand those thoughts
but you can see them.
The shifting, brilliant patterns
big as the sea
fall into place; then, like the sea,
shift and fall into place again.
And they all fall into place yet again.
And they bear you up in their hands
yet again.
World Premiere
February 8, 2019 by Annie Jeng and Colin McCall, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Commissioned by
Annie Jeng and Colin McCall
❦