Espaces Pointillés was composed in Oberlin, Ohio (2001). This work for flute and electro-acoustic sound was commissioned by Kathleen Chastain and premiered by her on October 13, 2001 during the AKI Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. Espaces Pointillés translates to "elliptical spaces." Kathleen and I chose the title after lengthy consideration. We were tempted to use the word "circular," but circles are perfect loops, i.e. closed circuits that systematically return to their origins. But nothing in nature exists in perfect circles; everything is oblong, elliptical, spiral, or just plain droopy. Human-made objects can be circular, but I think one of the beautiful aspects of music is that it is human-created energy which immediately escapes our grasp and returns to nature. Music literally jumps from an instrument, in the form of sound waves, and flees in all directions as quickly as possible. If we imagine music filtering through our ears, like grains of sand through our fingers, we reveal its ephemeral quality; and more figuratively, its destiny to escape the instrumental sandbox and return to the sonic ocean. Letting music be itself, gives it room to expand and contract-to breath; gives it room to become rather than to be scheduled in temporal and spatial precision. If we watch music with our ears, where does it go? How does it get there? What path does it take?
© fwmp 2004