Written for marimba quartet,
this work focuses not on the individual performers’ rhythm or melody,
but instead on the composite lines and harmonic rhythms that result from
their interplay. The melody is consistently divided amongst the four
players. These layered entrances overlap, creating dense sonorities that
highlight the resonant quality of the instrument. This piece was
conceived after reading the following quote:
Schopenhauer believed that art, in particular music, had - has -
the power to cause the will, the irrational, striving will, to somehow
turn back onto and into itself and cease to strive. He considered this a
religious experience, although temporary. Somehow art, somehow music
especially, has the power to transform man from an irrational thing into
some rational entity that is not driven by biological impulses,
impulses that cannot by definition ever be satisfied.
- Philip K. Dick, “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer”
Transmigration is meant to exemplify the reflective nature of
music, and its ability to (at least temporarily) transform us into
rational beings.
-PR