Relics

It is difficult to think of any piece of my own as truly inevitable to write as this one was, and I think reflecting on that sentiment has made me appreciate an almost immeasurable gratitude I have for the musicianship and friendship of the three individuals to which Relics is dedicated: Caroline Donavan, Isaac Ferrell, and Olivia Harrison.

In trying to capture some glimpse of what it has meant to come to know these three life-long friends through an undergraduate education, through a full year living together in the immediate fallout of a pandemic, and through their profound ongoing influence on my artistic development– Relics is a piece of music that tries to pay some homage, some recognition to the inception of our shared friendship. Its central theme is unabashed nostalgia, one that celebrates the memories I share with my friends themselves, while also grappling with (abstractly) the very extent to which nostalgia itself can afflict someone; it is equally explorative of my deeply personal memories as it is a mediation on the sublimity of wistfulness.

In a more direct look at the musical nature of Relics, the piece ponders through self-similar and symmetrical harmonies derived from augmented-triad and major-seventh sonorities that emerge out of imitative gestures and counterpoint. This texture permeates much of the piece, but equally important to the piece’s emotional quality is the presence of emergent and fleeting motivic identities. Some of these reference musical associations which to me, personally, are almost arresting in their ability to unearth a pang of nostalgia. The association may understandably not be as strong for most, so I highlight this only to connect more generally to how the hierarchy of musical elements in Relics is also meant to capture the sense of an ephemeral passing of one’s own memory.

Performance Time: approx. 8’30”