Recordatorio (2014)

Contralto (or countertenor), 2 baroque violins, baroque ‘cello, harpsichord
Duration: 7’

Written for Hilary Summers and Antico Moderno

Premiered February 5, 2014 at Morse Recital Hall, Yale University, CT.
Hilary Summers and Antico Moderno

In Ecclesiastes 1:11, the author reflects on the folly of human forgetfulness, suggesting that history’s cyclicism is due in part to mankind’s appropriation and reiteration of former things, often without realizing it. Recordatorio intertwines references to musical idioms of the past in a language that forgets where these tropes properly belong. For me, this piece is trapped in a short-term memory of its own, sometimes forgetting where it left off and how it began.

Non est prioum memoria;
sed nec eorum quidem quae postae futura sont
erit recordatio apud eos qui futuri sunt in novissimo

— Ecclesiastes 1.11 (Vulgate)

“There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after.”

— New King James translation