Meditation for Sphere of Influence (prelude for alternating hands) - Piano and Electronics

Ensemble: Piano/Electronics

Duration: 5’

Written: Spring 2022

Premiered: June 28, 2022, University of Rhode Island Summer String Academy

I began work on this prelude by digitally manipulating, auto-tuning, and eroding open-source samples of chimes often used for grounding meditation. This is a nod to the distorted and inauthentic culture around "mindfulness" that is so often birthed from the very mouths of our stressors. Supplemental harp harmonics and slow-motion cello phrases also dart back and forth between the speakers, resembling unexpected or intrusive thoughts and realizations. Amidst this digital backdrop, the pianist kneads humanness into the texture by weaving crosshanded patterns up and down the keyboard, mimicking the rise and fall of breath.

"Meditation for Sphere of Influence" alludes to the realistic and humbling limits of our individual reach. Individualism incentivizes us to act like the world's main character. Forces of patriarchy and settler-colonialism tell us all––especially our boys––that our individual goals should be insatiably lofty, amoral, and consequentially violent. Because these messages always overtly and subliminally encroach, this prelude prioritizes a re-embodiment that is beautifully human and small, an act as rebellious as it is necessary. It is not here to conquer; it is here for whoever hears it.

"There is no x-ray big enough to scan a country––
it is easier and more cost-effective to blame you."

-Alok Vaid-Menon,
my body: an american horror story