Musical works

This work is an echo of two important first encounters in my compositional development: the first time I touched a five-octave marimba at a percussion seminar with So Percussion, and the first time hearing Kaija Saariaho’s “Sept Papillon” (Seven Butterflies). Marimba, generally a very “happy” sounding instrument because of that strong major third in the overtones, sounds wonderfully muddy in its lowest range. Hearing those low thuds I imagined human-sized moths throwing themselves against a giant lantern in a manic attempt to unite with the flame, leaving smudges of grayish brown powder on the glass. The idea rattled around my brain for eight years before finally reaching that light. My encounter with Saariaho’s little butterflies happened a few years earlier thanks to a young cellist, Vanessa Hunt Russell, who was learning them at the Banff Centre. The notation was incomprehensible to me. So many lines and squiggles stacked on top of each other. My mind was blown when she showed me how the squiggles on the page corresponded with the physical gestures of the hands on the instrument. It was a whole other way to think about composing, a more physical way than what had been taught to me until then. Here was a hand fluttering on the strings like a butterfly. Saariaho’s string pieces became my school for string writing as I found my way to one of her young artists’ workshops she used to co-teach with her long time collaborator, cellist Anssi Karttunen. I started “Like moths to a flame” not long after Saariaho’s passing. I dedicate the work to her memory to honour everything she and her music has meant to me.