Program Note

Climate change is no longer a challenge for future generations, but a present, brutal reality for humanity. In my lifetime, the ecology of earth will change so drastically it will threaten our existence on the only planet we call home. Thinking about these realities sends a shudder down my spine and forces me to question to what end do I do? To what end do I create music and art? With the existence of humanity threatened, do these questions matter?

With all these anxieties in mind, I set out to compose a piece that illustrated the severity of our circumstances. tlezannen is a piece that sets a portion of a Nahuatl poem entitled “Cuicapeuhcayotl” indexed by Daniel G. Brinton in his book Ancient Nahuatl Poetry published in 1890. The Nahuatl language was the dominant language of the Aztec empire before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. Tlezannen is an adverb from the Nahuatl language meaning “to what end”. The portion of the poem I’ve set is a lament in which the poet realizes that the Earth is no longer satisfying to the soul and looks onward toward a paradise where the fullness of the natural world is restored. 

The music is a composition of 2 soundscapes. One is energetic, fleeting, and harmonically based on cycles of intervals. These cycles of intervals pass through phrase after phrase and provide the structure for the first half of the work. The second half of the work is harmonically based on the spectrum to derive pitches and intervals. These two distinct sections represent a cold, stark reality that we face as a human species. tlezannen reminds me that the lush, energetic, and cyclical nature of our world is rapidly changing forevermore. The brutal and barren landscape that is quickly approaching stands ready to change every aspect of our lives and leave devastation in its wake.