The Eternal Surge

(quartet)

glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba.

2000-2010: 30 mins. approx.

“How little do we know that which we are!
How less what we may be!
The eternal surge of time and tide rolls on,
and bears afar our bubbles:
as the old burst, new emerge,
Lash’d from the foam of ages;
while the graves of empires heave
but like some passing waves.”
from Don Juan (Canto XV), by Lord Byron.
“Let’s go down to where it’s clean
To see what time it might have been
The tides have carried off the beach
As you said
|The sun is out of reach”
from As You Said, by Jack Bruce & Pete Brown.

(i) Ebb

glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba
2007: 2 mins. 45 secs. approx.

“Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.”
Seneca (Roman philosopher, 1st century AD)

Ebb was premiered by SPEAK Percussion on 18-9-2010 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

(ii) PNEUma

vibraphone, marimba
2004 rev. 2008: 5 mins. approx.

pneuma: n. The soul or vital spirit, psyche, ego, mind, self.

PNEUma was premiered by SPEAK Percussion at the Incinerator Arts Complex as part of the Big West Festival in Melbourne on 24/11/2007, with its first European performance by Pedro Carneiro and Mario Teixeira in Tomar (Portugal) in June 2009.

(iii) …as the waves…

solo vibraphone
2007: 5 mins. 30 secs. approx.

“Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end,
Each changing place with that which goes before…”
from Sonnet 60, by William Shakespeare.

(iv) …tempus fugit…

glockenspiel, xylophone
2010: 3 mins. approx.

“Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore.”
(But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail).
from Georgics, by Virgil.

(v) Pro Tempore

solo marimba
2002 rev. 2004: 7 mins. 30 secs. approx.

“…Since there is nothing but this moment, ‘for the time being’ is all the time there is.”
Dogen Zenji (1200-1253).

(vi) Clash

xylophone, vibraphone
2006: 3 mins. approx.

“Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.”
from Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night, by Dylan Thomas.

Clash was premiered by SPEAK Percussion on 18-9-2010 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

(vii) Cogs

glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba
2000: 3 mins. 15 secs. approx.

“We measure time according to the movement of countless suns;
and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets.”
from Sand and Foam, by Kahlil Gibran.
“Just a little bit.
Just a little bit more time.
Time left to live out my life.”
from The Musical Box, by Genesis. (Banks, Collins, Gabriel, Hackett, Rutherford)

Cogs was premiered by SPEAK Percussion on 1-12-2000 at the Bennett’s Lane Jazz Lab, in Melbourne.