States and Paths

Program Note

When conceptualizing this work I had been thinking a lot about the idea of unity in a system, and how this could be explored musically. As a global or localized property and how one could influence aspects of order or disorder.

Additionally, I had been exploring concepts and properties found in the study of thermodynamics, and in particular struck me the idea of examining how energy in various states behave, and how their state and functions could be adapted to create or influence musical elements. The title is a reflection of how one measures or examines the state of energy, and has direct corollaries in how the music material influences or refers to itself and its parts through time.

Each of the six movements of the work focuses on a centralized concept that relates to being either open or closed; objects that are in a ground or excited state; players in unity or disunity, and to what effect players can or cannot influence the system itself (the system being the work, or the movement).