Symphony of the Hawai‘i Forests: Reflections on Ka Wai Ke Kumu Ola (2023) Full orchestraArrow of time (2016)
for chamber orchestra
duration: 8 minutes
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Score Excerpt: PDF
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Program Notes
"Arrow of Time" is a concept that time must flow in the direction from the past towards the future, always moving from order to disorder (entropy). The title works on several levels in the piece. First is that there is a sense of an ever-increasing amount of disorder that is present throughout the piece. Several times throughout the piece, a small number of instruments begin playing in one tempo, followed by other instruments entering in conflicting tempos that do not line up with one another. As more layers stack up, each with a slightly different tempo, it creates an increasingly chaotic texture - one that will not be played the same twice in performance. That the chaos is initiated by manipulating the tempo - or "time" - further reflects the title. In addition, the notation of the piece includes many arrows to facilitate the multiple tempos that occur in the piece.