15 minutes
2005

In this piece, I explored stretches of silence more thoroughly than ever before. There is a big difference between a long, softly held sound and actual silence. True silence in a musical composition is both exceedingly rare and potentially discomfiting. Here, the goal was not to disconcert anyone but to simply allow space for the sounds to be heard. Like certain portions of the work for horn, bassoon, violin, cello, vibraphone, and piano from 2004, this work features subtle variations within essentially repetitive passages. I felt that sufficient room was required in order for those variations to have effect. The two instruments are conceived as one—an approach possibly influenced by the fact that it was first written to be performed by two brothers.