About

Schism )) Pier is in two very contrasting movements dealing with a group of aesthetic, cultural, psychological, geographical, and historical divides I have often attempted to unify. In the score, I characterize this divide as (1) “future, father, West (passing fire)” and (2) “past, mother, East (worshipping ashes)”. The parenthetical aside refers to a citation of unclear origin known to us through Mahler, that tradition is not worshipping the ashes, but passing the fire. As to these difficult to reconcile divides, some coherence is gestured at through wave imagery and structures, as well as use of the primordial minor third. Nevertheless, in this piece the contrast is left mostly naked, merely described, not resolved. It is perhaps the essence of art to place two elements side by side and invite the observer to create meaning between them.

Schism )) Pier was commissioned by The Trondheim Soloists as part of Music Norway’s KUPP program, and is dedicated to Geir Inge Lotsberg. Selected as Norway’s representative for the International Rostrum of Composers.