Not Reconciled

Ming TSAO

Not Reconciled

clarinet, trombone, percussion, guitar, violoncello

Not Reconciled explores the boundary between logic and sound by attempting to mediate the two through the process of repetition. Repetition, as iterative impulse, endeavors to deconstruct the division between the physical perception of sound and the expectation of sequential sonic relationships by explicating a fluid musical structure that emanates from the friction caused between a sound's interior and exterior manifestations (as fermatas and metrical groupings respectively). Moments of self-awareness are attained through meta-repetition (as a group of repeated measures) that critiques this fluid structure by magnifying differences among expected relationships through questioning the identity of the repeated sounds. Minute differences among timbres erupt into structural differences among materials embodied in the `measure´, a lingering impression between articulated time points. Meter ultimately acts as a `sixth instrument´ whose physicality materializes through the remaining five instruments to project a rhythm of shifting proportions where any movement toward their reconciliation can be found only in the silent language of numbers.

Programme note © Ming TSAO