I came to Pauline Oliveros' work very late in life. It seems a bitter irony that I discovered the introspection, compassion, and acceptance of Buddhism and Taoism in my mid-20s, just as Maestra Oliveros was finding her deep, inward-facing sound; would that I had made the connection between thsoe grounding ideas of the East and her journeys in sound at the same time. Instead, it was about the time of her death that I came upon her 1988 recording, "Deep Listening." Initially, I didn't really understand what was going on; later, after reading her book of the same name, I started to make some connections. Listening further to interviews with artists who knew and worked with her, I came to recognize in her work something I have been reaching for for many years. I have learned that there is indeed a very great depth to her work, which, for someone like myself who habitually overthinks, is sometimes opaque in its simplicity. I believe her work, both written and aural, will be a touchstone I return to over my life, just as works of Eastern thought have.
This piece began as an exploration into Oliveros' emphasis on participation in sound, particularly as accessed through resonance. Reverberation and long delays are subjects of some fascination for me, so this seemed like a natural exercise. Before long, however, I found myself composing more than playing and, in keeping with an approach I am endeavoring to deploy more consistently, followed developments where they led. In the end, I came to the following work, decidedly composed and, except in the most superficial ways, very un-Oliveros-like, but which has many qualities I am striving for musically.
Structurally, it is based mostly on stacked fourths, which is obvious enough to hear, harmonized in groups of three: the very long delay sustains each note enough that it is heard relatively clearly against the following two notes. Its tonality is Bb Dorian, but I'm not terribly confident of my harmonic structures (or even how meaningful that is, given it is quartan rather than tertian). Technically, I used Live 9's native viola solo sample; it's a bit mechanical, but I was able to wrestle sufficient expression out of it to compensate for the unacceptable tone and intonation of my own, long-departed skills. The 15 second delay was of my own construction in Max for Live and the reverb was Valhalla VintageVerb using a ~4" resonance.
What I like about the piece, and what led me to decide it was worth sharing, was the overall timbre (always a central consideration), the harmonies, and that it has an arc: I've been feeling that much of what I have produced up to now doesn't really "go" anywhere; it lacks a sense of direction or point, which, to me is a critical part of what makes a work musical. I'm pleased with how this came out and what I learned in the process of writing it.