2016

I've often come back to the poetry of T.S. Eliot over the years, especially his mystical ruminations on time in The Four Quartets, pondering evocative phrases such as “the music from a farther room,” or “you are the music while the music lasts.”

Without drawing conscious connections, I sometimes recognize phenomena in his poetry that I strive to create in my own works. When I was composing, lines or images from the poetry sometimes popped into my head, which inspired me to explore a variety of moods, depths, and time relationships among the performers. In some sections, such as parts 1 & 3, the performers play independently of each other, following their own fluctuating tempos and dynamic swells. In others, such as part 4 and 5, they perform with very precisely interlocking rhythms. The piece ends and begins with the same movement, mirroring Eliot’s line from “East Coker”: “In my beginning is my end.”

Premiered by Janet McKay, Rianne Wilschut, Liam Viney, Vanessa Tomlinson, Graeme Jennings and John Addison at Queensland Conservatorium, 6 Oct 2010.