Mixed Ensemble

Fold (2022)

“Fold” (for flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello, percussion, and piano) is a piece about the changing relationship between a craftsperson and their craft over the span of their creative life. It is in five movements. The piece begins with a musical gesture that symbolizes a basic folding technique in origami - the pleat fold. This folding pattern is created by folding the paper upward, then downward parallel to the previous fold, forming a zigzag shape. The musical gesture imitates it in pitch.

In the first movement, the gesture develops and a musical poem unfolds. It replicates the structure of a traditional Chinese poetic form known as ci poetry. Instead of characters, the musical ci poem is recited with notes by the piano and the strings. In the second and third movements, variations are derived from the musical ci poem, and the instruments mimic each other in different ways to form contrasts and symbioses. In the fourth movement, the pleating musical gesture transforms again and imitates the clock ticking and chiming. The new musical elements represent the concept of time and objective reality, which were not present in the first three movements. In the last movement, multiple ticking pulses are present at the same time throughout the movement, and previous musical elements are fragmented and distorted. The dissonances are a metaphor for misperceived time and deteriorating senses. In the end, all sounds cease to exist as if the music folds itself back to silence.

Total length: 26 -28 min