Void to Matter
Void to Matter, beginning just seconds after the Big Bang, explores the sonic imaging of creation itself. The solo cello emerges as a thread of life quickly forming within a new and unfamiliar cosmos as it is surrounded by the vast, shifting textures of electronics, strings, the rumbling low end of the piano and the sparks of bright “cluster” chords in the upper register of the piano. The work follows humanity’s ancient past and its projected future: from the first sparks of organic life to our modern “dream” of leaving Earth to build new civilizations among the stars.
Rising, ethereal swells, so triumphant at the beginning of our journey into the unknown, suddenly give way to unease as the piano’s left hand falls into dissonance, confronting the stark coldness of the cosmic void and the illusion of progress. One hand struggles with the other as diatonic and dissonant harmonies collide and the cello struggles upward, at first timid, then spiralling downward into the depths of distorted despair, embodying the idea of human ambition pressing against its own physical and emotional limits. A soaring cry from the solo cello breaks into silence before the piano returns with harsher, more foreboding chords, representing our closing proximity to the very star we believed would save us.
In the final section of the piece, the ensemble struggles upward through the heavy gravitational forces of dissonance, disruption and fear, eventually locking into clock-like forward motion. The final lines imply purpose and cooperation, yet lacks resolution as we continue toward a very uncertain future. As we endeavor to ascend beyond the veil of our atmosphere, the piece asks: what remains unresolved and unknown within us? And what of that shall we carry forth to new the horizons we seek?
