“Ringing Lung”
Longtime friend and artist extraordinaire, Anne Austin Pearce’s work shouts breath to me. From the lower end of the piece, lungs come to mind, slightly imbalanced to represent the registers of the flute and clarinet expanding at different speeds through swells of inhalation and exhalation.
The pink line represents to triplet idea emerging and we will eventually get to the chromatic runs (blurring lines as you move to the top of the artwork) that will take us back to the meditative start, though switched with modified parts. The flute and clarinet have a wonderful ability to swap acoustical worlds which I hope to exploit.
After a slow introduction intended to mimic the sound of breath, “Lion’s breath” gradually emerges and develops with more blurring between the instrumental timbres. Finally, a return to calmness and, eventually, shavasana.
Pranayama (from yoga) where Prana refers to the universal life force and ayama means to regulate or lengthen.
Thomas Kim and Melody Wan commissioned the piece as a part Chamber Music America in 2021. Since then, the piece has had nine performances by Melody and Thomas and new performers. Very excited to record the piece in the studio at LSU (November 2023) with Thomas and Melody for my new CD to release coming spring 2024.
(cue to 30:53)