70 minutes
2009

Sometime in 2008 or 2009 I attended a guitar recital by Aaron Larget-Caplan. I’m sorry to say that I don’t have any specific recollection of the music he performed. However, one particular moment of tuning, in between pieces, provided an experience I retain with total clarity. I have long been particularly drawn to the sound of musical instruments when they are not meant to be listened to—or, perhaps more precisely, when they are not being played “musically,” but they are just “being played.” 

From the performance note in the score: “I was struck by the particular beauty of the instrument. The delicate sound of harmonics and open strings; the natural and unselfconscious manner of execution; and the concentrated listening Aaron was engaged in all struck me. In particular, the sound of the instrument—which I have long admired—struck me as more beautiful than ever before. A short while later I decided to compose a piece which celebrated that sound, and that unselfconscious, highly attuned, kind of listening.” Over its 70 minutes, this composition features all of the things I heard and loved in that brief moment between pieces: harmonics, open strings, unisons and near-unisions, and subtle gradations and adjustments to pitch.