A Dark Matter
For alto flute, oboe, clarinet in A and piano (2022)
Length: 18 minutes (4 movements)
Commissioned for Exponential Ensemble by Chamber Music America with additional support from Composers Guild of New Jersey.
This performance:
Exponential Ensemble:
Anna Urrey, alto flute
Kemp Jernigan, oboe
Pascal Archer, clarinet in A
Amir Farid, piano
About the piece
Dark matter is one of the most elusive phenomena in the world. While Physicists estimate that dark matter accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe, it has not been proved yet that it actually exists. I find it fascinating that a concept that may have such a foundational role in the construction of the universe remains that mysterious as of today. My piece A Dark Matter explores the notion that our mind also sometimes circles around an intangible “dark matter.” An indefinable worry, regret, or fear can occupy us for a long time and color everything else in dark shades. At the core of this piece is such musical “dark matter.” The first three movements begin almost identically with a claustrophobic web of three melodic threads that crawl, tangle and repeat without any sense of resolution. In each movement, a different one of these threads develops into its own small melancholic universe. In the fourth and last movement, out of the gloom grows a simple melody in the alto flute that offers some hope and comfort, despite the return of the “dark matter” threads at the very end of the piece. In 2023 the piece won the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest.
Selected Performances:
• National Opera Center (New York, NY, USA): Exponential Ensemble
• Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ, USA): Exponential Ensemble
• Mostly Modern Festival (Saratoga Springs, NY, USA): Exponential Ensemble
• Beth Haverim Shir Shalom (Mahwah, NJ, USA): Exponential Ensemble
• Berkeley Hillside Club (CA, USA), scheduled 1.26.2025: Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
• Noe Valley Ministry (San Francisco, CA, USA), scheduled 2.1. 2025: Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
