Instrumentation:

• cello — fixed media

Duration: 31:00

First Performance: 16 September 2018 / O’Connell Hall, West Hartford, CT / Benjamin Stayner, cello

Program Note:

• As Douglas Hofstadter demonstrates in his book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, life is made up of recursion, strange loops, and fantastic paradoxes of logic. Like in life, our mind as well becomes prey to these devastating recursive loops, especially in times of personal tragedy. Our mind blames them and then blames itself for such an act — spiraling into self-loathing. It is a perilous state of being, one that I have found myself all too frequently visiting. It takes strength and courage to leap out of the loop, and if it is done, can lead to great personal growth. The journey from chaos to order is a natural story of life. It is found everywhere: in music through dissonance and consonance, in painting through symmetry and asymmetry, and even in the daily occurrences of our emotions through sadness and happiness. This journey is an elemental reality in our lives and this piece seeks to represent it.