Stillness and Occurrence
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(flute (picc.), ob, cl, hn, tpt, tbn, vn I, vn II, vla, vc, cb), 15 min., 2005. Based on this photograph by the the Scottish photographer David Williams. Premiered at the Bard College Composer-Conductor conference, Eduardo Navega, conductor, Annondale-on-Hudson, NY.
Members of the Fifth House Ensemble and Merit School of Music Faculty, Amy Briggs, conductor, 2005
The title Stillness and Occurrence is taken from a photograph by the Scottish artist David Willimas, a copy of which is in the collection of the Royal Museum of Scotland. In this blurry image, the color white dominates, appearing to represent white water running onto white sand beneath and white sky. What is likely people’s clothes create splashes of colors in groups fading off into the distance in the center of the frame. Isolated to the right, far away from any other color, a small area of bright red seems to outline the shirt of a small boy, alone in his reverie.
This piece takes the photograph as its starting point and attempts to enter into the thoughts of this child.