two pairs of incantations

13’

string trio and optional melodica
for the 2021 Creative Dialogues France residency

Score

This piece grew out of a long-standing love of the art of Agnes Martin and James Turrell. Their works take very different postures toward the viewer (Martin’s of humility, Turrell’s of encroachment and enclosure) but both use their materials to focus the audience’s attention on their perception, rather than on the materials of the work.

I wrote the music during a very special time in France: residencey at Château de Beauchêne, Champtocé-sur-Loire organised by the great Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen. Rehearsing daily with Jennifer Murphy (violin), Aurore Pignoque (viola) and Katarina Leskovar (cello) we honed the unfocused sketches with which I arrived into the version you can hear now. (They even let me join in the fun on my melodica!) I’m forever grateful for their expertise, patience, advice, and friendship, without which this piece would not exist.