In This Time One Hears This Writing is a piece enmeshed in the juxtaposition of presentness and transformation. The title of the work holds two meanings: 1.) In this moment in time the audience member is hearing the author’s writing. 2.) In this time in history the audience member may hear these sounds in a concert setting. These meanings act as the impetus of the dramaturgical intent of the piece as well as the subsequent compositional functions it possesses.

In This Time traverses the seemingly disparate ideas of presentness (existing solely in the present moment) and transformation. Through the use of extended instrumental techniques the work elicits sound content which resides somewhere between the two. Aleatoric and vulnerable, improvisatory passages are utilized in order to extract non-standardly tuned tones, fragile textures and sounds which are constantly in the process of becoming something new. In contrast with these materials, the piece also features and highlights the meditative qualities of static sounds, singing bowls and water noises. Ultimately, these two sounds worlds are intersected and transfigured into a spectrum of becoming and being.

I invite the listener to be mindful of the ephemerality of the concert experience and welcome them to explore and evaluate what they remember once This Time is only memory.