The ticking of eternity | 2020
2'50"
A miniature for reed quintet (ob, cl, asax, b. cl, bsn) and fixed media
For the Civitasolis Reed Quintet
This piece is the coming together of several new and unfulfilled ideas; it combines my passion for poetry, spoken word, and collaboration. The poem “Renascence,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, speaks of her symbolic death and rebirth through the palpable experience of a deep empathy for the human condition. I have always been drawn to Millay’s vivid language and raw, yet controlled, expression. This excerpt comes from an innocent section near the beginning of the poem, presenting the narrator’s discovery of the magnanimity of Nature, a sort of spiritual awakening. The huge concepts and images in this excerpt contrast nicely with the small scale of this musical work. I tried to capture as much of this depth as possible in a condensed form; sometimes this was feasible, other times impossible. Musically, the piece follows the story of the poem, essentially acting as an audible guide to the emotions of the character.
My wife, Gina, also loves Millay’s work, and the thought of combining her professional acting abilities with this music just made sense. This is our first collaboration after almost three months of marriage, and is the first of many more to come. This piece is dedicated to her for obvious reasons…but also because she asked me to dedicate it to her many, many times.
A miniature for reed quintet (ob, cl, asax, b. cl, bsn) and fixed media
For the Civitasolis Reed Quintet
This piece is the coming together of several new and unfulfilled ideas; it combines my passion for poetry, spoken word, and collaboration. The poem “Renascence,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, speaks of her symbolic death and rebirth through the palpable experience of a deep empathy for the human condition. I have always been drawn to Millay’s vivid language and raw, yet controlled, expression. This excerpt comes from an innocent section near the beginning of the poem, presenting the narrator’s discovery of the magnanimity of Nature, a sort of spiritual awakening. The huge concepts and images in this excerpt contrast nicely with the small scale of this musical work. I tried to capture as much of this depth as possible in a condensed form; sometimes this was feasible, other times impossible. Musically, the piece follows the story of the poem, essentially acting as an audible guide to the emotions of the character.
My wife, Gina, also loves Millay’s work, and the thought of combining her professional acting abilities with this music just made sense. This is our first collaboration after almost three months of marriage, and is the first of many more to come. This piece is dedicated to her for obvious reasons…but also because she asked me to dedicate it to her many, many times.
From “Renascence” (1912) by Edna St. Vincent Millay
“But, sure, the sky is big, I said;
Miles and miles above my head;
So here upon my back I’ll lie
And look my fill into the sky.
And so I looked, and, after all,
The sky was not so very tall.
The sky, I said, must somewhere stop,
And—sure enough!—I see the top!
The sky, I thought, is not so grand;
I ‘most could touch it with my hand!
And reaching up my hand to try,
I screamed to feel it touch the sky.
I screamed, and—lo!—Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest,
Bent back my arm upon my breast,
And, pressing of the Undefined
The definition on my mind,
Held up before my eyes a glass
Through which my shrinking sight did pass
Until it seemed I must behold
Immensity made manifold;
Whispered to me a word whose sound
Deafened the air for worlds around,
And brought unmuffled to my ears
The gossiping of friendly spheres,
The creaking of the tented sky,
The ticking of Eternity.”
“But, sure, the sky is big, I said;
Miles and miles above my head;
So here upon my back I’ll lie
And look my fill into the sky.
And so I looked, and, after all,
The sky was not so very tall.
The sky, I said, must somewhere stop,
And—sure enough!—I see the top!
The sky, I thought, is not so grand;
I ‘most could touch it with my hand!
And reaching up my hand to try,
I screamed to feel it touch the sky.
I screamed, and—lo!—Infinity
Came down and settled over me;
Forced back my scream into my chest,
Bent back my arm upon my breast,
And, pressing of the Undefined
The definition on my mind,
Held up before my eyes a glass
Through which my shrinking sight did pass
Until it seemed I must behold
Immensity made manifold;
Whispered to me a word whose sound
Deafened the air for worlds around,
And brought unmuffled to my ears
The gossiping of friendly spheres,
The creaking of the tented sky,
The ticking of Eternity.”