Passacaglia for the Eternity of Time
for violin, clarinet, viola, and piano
Passacaglia for the Eternity of Time is a musical examination of time as both a philosophical concept and a scientific measurement. While it takes much inspiration from Oliver Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time, it is also a counter-argument to this work. The piece asks the listener to consider the following questions: “how can Christianity promise both eternal life and an end of time,” “is time eternal or finite,” “is time real or a construct,” and “what is time?”
Occurring exactly in five minutes, the piece is a musical palindrome in which everything that occurs in the second half is a mirror image of the first. The piece seeks to create a moment of eternity, beginning in medias res (in the middle of things) and ending without a clear conclusion. Therefore, it could be repeated infinitely without the listener knowing where it begins or ends.
Passacaglia challenges the listener to reconsider his or her preconceptions about time by juxtaposing the perception of time by the scientific measurement of time. At times, the listener is made acutely aware of the passage of each second through the clock-like motive in the piano and viola. In other moments, however, the listener might lose that sense of time through the absence of the ticking clock and the presence of long and flowing lines in the clarinet.
Occurring exactly in five minutes, the piece is a musical palindrome in which everything that occurs in the second half is a mirror image of the first. The piece seeks to create a moment of eternity, beginning in medias res (in the middle of things) and ending without a clear conclusion. Therefore, it could be repeated infinitely without the listener knowing where it begins or ends.
Passacaglia challenges the listener to reconsider his or her preconceptions about time by juxtaposing the perception of time by the scientific measurement of time. At times, the listener is made acutely aware of the passage of each second through the clock-like motive in the piano and viola. In other moments, however, the listener might lose that sense of time through the absence of the ticking clock and the presence of long and flowing lines in the clarinet.
