An Atlas of Time
for large ensemble
(2013)
- Duration 17'
- Instrumentation flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, 2 pianos, 2 percussionists, 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, bass and electronics
-
Commission
and Premiere Commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble Modern, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke. November 24, 2013, Frankfurt (Cresc. Biennale 2013) -
Movements
1. Internationale (1989 Edition)
2. Molten Cathedral
3. Piccolo Trumpets: A Children’s Broadcast
4. Caravaggio’s Descent
5. Tombeau
Tracks from An Atlas of Time (New Focus Recordings - fcr277), released November 20, 2020. Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor
Program Notes
Time is visible. When visiting San Clemente in Rome, one clearly sees distinct layers of time in the blurred, faded frescoes, the fragmentary mosaics, and further below, underground water flowing as it always did for over two millennia. Time is fragrant, like Spring! The mixed breeze of purple wisteria, jasmine, rosemary and parsley…
Time has a temperature. Standing in the raucous square, closing your eyes and stretching your arms, the warmth of the orange sunshine infiltrates your skin, and it is a luminous Mediterranean afternoon.
Time is audible. The striking of three bells in succession, followed by one a halftone higher, and it is 3:15 in the afternoon. Starlings swoop in large swarms, whistling like black clouds in a magical formation, while cicadas hiss and autumn winds brush down the sycamore leaves. A young man plays his accordion at dusk on the bridge, and a mother sings a lullaby.
I think music performs magic on time. It can stop the feeling of time passing by sweetening, mesmerizing, and compressing time to an extreme with overwhelming sequences of sound along with an abundance of affect.
There were particular musical moments that struck me at various times in my life. They started from the resonances of childhood memories in China: 1980s rock with its anti-authoritarian message, ear-popping bicycle bells in morning traffic, the next door incessant chatter and kitchen noise of neighbors, my six-year-old self banging on the piano, construction workers drilling through concrete…
These sounds shape my sense of time and recollection. The momentary flashbacks bring together fragments of memory and sensation that I hope to pass along through my music.
– Wang Lu
