Program Note

I’m not really sure how to meditate properly. But in these pieces, I am trying, with some success and some failure. There are three meditations on important subjects, and one very necessary daydream. Throughout the piece, a dream-like parallel narrative distracts our thoughts in the form of a clock approaching midnight. In this way, the piece aims to reflect and sit with the feelings of joy, anxiety, and distraction that together make our reality. 

I. Meditation on listening, silence (prelude)

The world, our environment, is telling us a lot. We just need to be quiet and listen. Animals and plants understand this. Can we? Can we concentrate on what is around us? 

II. Meditation on the hockey stick graph (theme & variations)

The “hockey stick graph,” as it is known was published in 1999 by Mann, Bradley, and Hughes. It showed the change in global temperature over the last one thousand years. It was later updated to show the last two thousand, i.e. since the time of Jesus. This meditation, presented as a theme and variations on the graph’s contour, is on the updated one.

The graph looks more or less as you would expect. It is generally stable, with a slight dip around the fourteenth century signifying what’s sometimes called the “Little Ice Age.” In the twentieth century, the graph spikes upward in a frightening way. Instead of glancing at it and moving on, I think we should sit with it for a while and try to process it.

III. Daydream (interlude)

Sometimes, we need to just space out. It’s not always as easy as it sounds. But it’s important.

IV. Meditation on eternity, geologic time (postlude)

Can you think of a sound that is more ancient or continuous than the ocean’s waves? I can’t. It’s also one of the most beautiful sounds, and offers a reminder to be humble as a species. It has been here long before us, and will be here long after we’re gone. Can we respect it? Can we play in harmony with it?  

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the Fourth Wall Ensemble – C. Neil Parsons, Hilary Abigana, and Greg Jukes – for their support and collaboration on this project leading to its premiere performance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Thank you in particular to Greg Jukes and Dan VanHassel for their assistance with the electronic components. Thank you to the Berklee Faculty Fellowship for its support of this work, its performance, and to all those who supported and encouraged the project in any way. And finally, a thanks to this world that we live in. Let’s all show it – and each other – more appreciation.