This invention (like all the others) is a radical composition; it is unique in the set of 15 for a number of reasons, one of which is how clearly it demonstrates how Bach’s formal thinking appropriates that of the Franco-Flemish School, in whose polyphony the component lines exhibit such persistent independent-mindedness as to repel one another like magnets brought together at their ends of like charge.​

I have never loved the term “imitative polyphony.” A polyphonic idea is a contrapuntal combination of discrete sound components whose sense lies in the totality of their combined sound. The art of invertible counterpoint consists of varying the disposition of these components in relation to one another; it is a way of exploring the implicit potential of a basic idea so as to produce a variety of sound expressions that also fulfill different compositional/syntactic functions. Here form literally equals the unravelling of the idea’s inherent potential. 

When two varying dispositions of the same basic idea are placed in succession, it is possible to hear the recurring component material—which will appear in a different voice or register than before—as a repetition or “imitation” of what has just been stated elsewhere. But this misses the point. The attention, so far as the composer is concerned, is rather on the total sound emanation created by the new disposition, which cannot be traced to any of its components individually. It is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. 

Polyphony, and counterpoint, paradoxically, are more vertical than horizontal. The individual lines exhibit independence, but the perception of independence comes about only in relation to their context.

With equal and opposite intensity, my long form and miniature works seek a sonic effect that is fully experienced only in live performance, and realized only when the work is finished, in the silence that follows.

My summer is off in a fury of notated composition, taking the form of solo piano miniatures whose contrapuntal and harmonic technique intuitively exhibits, among other things, the nourishment I have received from the music of two composers: Galina Ustvolskaya and Olivier Messiaen. I aim to present this work later this summer.

Meanwhile, the work presented here explores miniature form with just the intensity described above. The exquisite performance was given on my Reinterpretations series as part of the presentation “Parallel Futures” in November 2016 at Spectrum. The following is from the program notes:

​“Music is perhaps most explicitly poetic in a miniature. And one could say such music, in its absolute concentration, most materially transforms the immediate silence around it, making of it a special moment, a unique time of reflection, a potent space in which divergent narratives can be awakened, each, in parallel, suggestive of meanings in the music consequential to the life of a listener.”

​My interest in counterpoint underlies much of my concert music. My string quintet, presented in this video along with the score, is a large-scale polyphonic conception and an unusual, multi-faceted outcome of my fascination with the music of the Franco-Flemish School. The ‘Salve Regina’ plainchant unfolds in the Viola I and II parts over the course of the work as a cantus firmus. It is the inspiration for the work’s obsessive, relentless, virtuosic polyphony. The work abounds in esoteric contrapuntal play. Its rhythmic language satisfies an urge to create new, complex, dynamic polyphonic interactions. Its pitch language notably moves fluently and at times symbolically between atonality and pure diatonicism, a primary compositional interest of mine. The work was composed for my Reinterpretations concert series as part of the performance-lecture “Polyphony, Mysticism, and the Music of Opposites,” presented at Spectrum on May 15, 2016.

​September’s Reinterpretations was an important artistic achievement for me. The work’s form unfolds wholly from the sonorous, bell-like repeated low sounds that begin the piece and whose intermingling creates a complex ether of sound that founds the harmonic life of the middle and upper registers. The blending together of opposing sound-colors creates the music’s ever-renewed, ever-deepening sense of dimension. I found the entire hour-long exploration exhilarating and intensely focused. To my delight, I felt it could have continued indefinitely.