In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times.
In this piece, I seek to capture the inevitability of time's passage during periods of distress. Time freezes, life stops, and shatters into pieces, as do words of a poem separated into phonemes. These phonemes are all actual constituents of the whole, yet taken together, they don't form a complete whole. In times of trouble, nothing is the same anymore; the flute and saxophone play multiple notes at once instead of melodies, and violin notes slide as if not able to sustain themselves. Even the sound of the piano is defamiliarized, evoking an uncanniness of the moment.
There are two versions of this piece: the original (2022) performed by the ICE Ensemble and a revised (2025) performed by Tony Arnold and Collage New Music.