The Way of Ideas - Alexandra Gardner (flute, clarinet, violin, cello)
Natasha Loomis, flute
Shannon Williams, clarinet
Asuka Yanai, violin
Alanna Hunter, cello
Zodiac Music Festival
Place Grimaldi
Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
July 10, 2016
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The Way of Ideas was commissioned by The Seattle Chamber Players for their 2008 Icebreaker IV Festival, curated by Alex Ross. The title is inspired by a quote from Philip Pullman’s book, The Golden Compass:
"The idea hovered and shimmered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else…"
For me this immediately leapt off the page as a refreshingly clear description of how thoughts become reality. The ideas we do not become overly attached to, or grasp at, are the ones that manifest in the world. I am fascinated by the notion that wishes, ideas and questions must be held lightly, that they cannot be forced in order for us to discover their answers.
In this composition I wanted to fold this concept into a musical landscape that evokes the everyday machinations of the human mind—an environment in which chattering thoughts suddenly fly away or are pulled slowly apart, return again, and change and develop into new forms which travel along different pathways. Musical textures expand and contract, and the focus twists and turns to reveal threads of intertwined rhythms and gestures that encompass a continually transforming organism.
