light pours through the quiet interstices and we measure this transient world (2018)

General Information

Movements:
i. light pours through
ii. the quiet interstices
iii. we measure this transient world

Commissioner: Written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program
Written: August 2018 – January 2019
Duration: ca. 7.5’
Instrumentation: 2 vln + vla + vcl (string quartet)

Performance History

January 12, 2019: Lyris Quartet at Choral Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA (World Premiere)
June 20, 2021: Boston New Music Initiative at 960 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA

Perusal Score

~ This score below is intended for perusal purposes only, and may not be used for performance. To obtain performance materials, please click here. Thank you! ~

Program Note

For our 2018 Fall Project in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program, I was asked to write a string quartet with the prompt of 'contrasts'. While concurrently reading John Milton's Paradise Lost in my school philosophy class, the contrast between 'Heaven' - light, spacious, airy texture - and 'Earth' - warmer, rougher, darker sounds - forms the backbone of this work. The title is an amalgamation of two quotes: "light... in the quiet interstices" is from the last chapter of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and Adam says to the Archangel Michael in the final pages of Paradise Lost "thy... measured this transient world". I thought of an image of light 'pouring through the quiet interstices' - moving from a divine realm, through some intermediary space, to ours, so that we have the ability to live and experience reality - to 'measure this transient world'.

Each movement's title is a snippet of the work's title as a whole. The first movement, 'light pours through', reflects that aforementioned otherworld. The second movement, 'the quiet interstices', is quite literally an interstice ("an intervening space, usually a very small one", as defined by the dictionary) for the work, serving as a transition into the third movement 'we measure this transient world', which reflects our own.

I am extremely grateful to Sarah Gibson, Andrew Norman, Sarah Little, and Emily Lair for all of the time, energy, and investment they've placed in me and this piece.

Awards

Boston New Music Initiative, 6th Annual Young Composers Competition, First Prize (2020)
ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award, Honorable Mention (2019)
American Composer’s Forum Nextnotes Young Composer Awards, Honorable Mention/Alternate (2019)