Time's Labyrinth
This piece is dedicated to the memory of my father. Its primary guide is the eponymous poem, “Anyway”, that I began writing during his final days and finished shortly after his passing. It is further inspired by the genre of tombeau compositions that originated in France in the 17th century. Through the work I reflect on the seemingly surreal state of being into which I observed my father slipping as he slowly died: conventional reasoning faltered and he struggled to stay connected to its logic of cause and effect; and he appeared to experience a progressive disembodiment of mind marked by ever freer associations between different paths of thought, remembrance, and imagination.
The electronic elements of the piece serve multiple functions. Some of them relate to the “disintegration” of the harp and its dissolution into space (which one might also understand as a transcendence of its physical constraints). All of them contribute to experiencing time as a labyrinth. Commensurate with the erosion of normative rationality described above, techniques of distortion and modulation destabilize the harp’s timbre and intonation, as does its microtonal scordatura tuning. Dislocated harp resonance, pedal noise, and extrinsic sounds—of the ocean, rainfall, leaves rustling, bird calls, the crackling of old records—all contribute to an acoustic environment at once beyond and within the harp’s world. I imagine the acousmatic elements transforming the performance space into a vast mind-body that envelops the listener, filling it like breath.
Both the harp and electronic parts also conjure aspects of actual baroque tombeaux. The harp writing incorporates characteristic features such as trills, pedal tones and repeating patterns. Fragments of richly ornamented pieces by Froberger, Marais, and Weiss make spectral apparitions, themselves acting as ornaments and modulators. I hope that their pale presence opens a portal to a still deeper pool of remembering and memorialization.
-Joshua Levine
Time’s Labyrinth
Parker Ramsay, harp
Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba
João Svindzinski, electronics
Clément Marie, sound diffusion
Les Couplets // Sainte-Colombe
Tombeau sur la mort de Monsieur Blancrocher // J.J. Froberger
Les Regrets & Tombeau // Sainte-Colombe
Les Baricades Mistérieuses // François Couperin (tr. Weiss)
Lamentation faite sur la mort Ferdinand III // J.J. Froberger
Suite en mi mineur // Marin Marais
Tombeau sur la mort de Monsieur Comte de Logy // Sylvius Leopold Weiss
Anyway (2019-2023) // Josh Levine
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For booking inquiries, please contact:
Noé Kains, different birds
https://www.differentbirds.org/
