observer (2022)
Electric guitar quartet
Duration: 17’
Premiered by Dither Quartet at Taplin Auditorium, February 10, 2022
program note
Movements and descriptions below
i. starstruck
One of my favorite feelings I experience when listening to any piece of music is the sensation of feeling weightless, as if I am floating, buoyant; free, but also lost. As if I’m discovering how to listen to music for the first time, full of wonder. starstruck is loosely based on personal memories of listening to the first prelude of Bach's Well-Temperd Clavier and of playing in hardcore bands when I was in high school.
ii. stopgap blues
I have moved every year of my life since 2014, often multiple times. Because of this, I often feel unsettled, as if I don't have a true sense of home, and I fear that I won't for quite a long time.
stopgap blues is somewhat related to this feeling. It's my emotional reaction to chronic impermanence. I've often found myself yearning for childhood recently, which was the last time I knew where home was.