Recorded by Reiko Manabe for the hibari project, a charitable effort bringing relief to people in Northeastern Japan who were affected by the Tōhoku earthquake of March 2011.
Program Note Ripples was composed in 2011 as a small gesture of compassion in response to the tragic events surrounding the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The score begins with an obsessive focus on a remote flute behavior and then proceeds through a chain of inferences marked by the physical proximity (in embouchure position) of various techniques as opposed to their sonic character. Later, there are points of comparisons made between networks of materials associated by modes of production and those that are more closely allied by sound. Though the piece follows no scenario, it has an expressive trajectory that begins with inchoate, rootless undulation and slowly develops a gestural fluidity – as if the oppressive weight of a disturbing event has lifted to the degree that one can begin to reflect upon it.
