Imminence (2017)
For violin, clarinet, and percussion (and five dancers)
Choreography by Erin Dillon
Duration: 16 minutes
Written for Periapsis Music and Dance
World premiere: April 1-2, 2017
GK ArtsCenter, Brooklyn
Lauren Cauley, violin; Adrián Sandí, clarinet; Sarah Mullins, percussion
Dancers: Demetria “D’vass” Charles, Elisabeth Jeffrey, Isaac Owens, Hannah Weber, Marissa Wiley
This work is available for retail purchase from Theodore Front Musical Literature.
This work is available for institutional purchase from Harrassowitz (OttoEditions) and Theodore Front Musical Literature.
Program note: When I wrote Escape Velocity in 2015 with choreographer Seán Curran, we settled on an idea that somehow fell away during the actual process. So I resurrected it for this work with choreographer Erin Dillon: One of the properties of a black hole is that, due to its intense gravitational pull, time is warped so as to appear to an outside observer to slow objects down as they approach it. An object that gets close enough to fall in would appear to just freeze on the edge. I thought it would be interesting to have something on stage that would exert a similar effect, and we felt that the percussion (particularly the bass drum) could take on that role. So this work came to be about a looming danger that people ignore or dismiss until they can no longer avoid it.
Behind-the-scenes video here: