The Persistence Of Past Chemistries
Charles Griffin
About this work:
Commissioned by Ethos Percussion Group and recorded by them for their CD of the same name. This piece has been performed at PASIC, Weill and Merkin Halls in New York, the Kennedy Center.
One of the ways that Professor Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachussets defines life in her book What is Life?, is as “patterns of chemical conservation in a universe tending toward heat loss and disintegration. . . . Death is part of life because even dying matter, once it reproduces, rescues complex chemical systems and budding dissipative structures from thermodynamic equilibrium. . . . Preserving the past, making a difference between past and present, life binds time, expanding complexity and creating new problems for itself.”
I hit upon the title for this piece after I had already decided to restrict the sonic palette exclusively to instruments made of wood, a way to acknowledge this uniquely human reconstitution of organic matter. Not only do the instruments give the trees from which they came new life, but the musicians also bring new life to their instruments. Furthermore, my music tends to be the sum of sometimes disparate parts that take on new life through their integration; jazz, latino, and minimalist music all coexist in The Persistence of Past Chemistries.
Year composed: 1998
Duration: 00:09:15
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Percussion Ensembles
Instrumentation: 2 Percussion (General), 1 Marimba, 1 Xylophone
Instrumentation notes: Marimba, Xylophone, Wood Block, Log Drums, Claves, Castanets, Caxxixxi (Shakers),Cajon