Memory III / IV: Chimaeram

Memory III / IV: Chimaeram, for string ensemble, voice, piano, percussions, and analog electronics, is the first of many experiments with a nonlinear musical form inspired by narratology, or the structure and function of narrative. In the most basic version of this form, musical material does not develop in its entirety on a linear scale, but is instead presented in finite segments which are shuffled among themselves and distributed throughout the piece. These segments can be presented in linear order, wherein each time a material is revisited it picks up where it last left off, or they can be presented out of order, creating moments of “flashing back” or “flashing forward” to points along a material’s developmental path.

This piece takes segments from four musical materials: a material characterized by aperiodic rhythms bowed on the low strings of the piano, a material characterized two to three heterophonic melodic lines lead by the viola, a material characterized by a cello solo accompanied by descending or ascending arpeggios distributed across the rest of the string section, and a material characterized by a spoken poem in the voice. In Memory III / IV: Chimaeram, each of these materials develop linearly, interrupting one another to continue from where they last left off. Sometimes the interruptions are smoother, and sometimes they are more abrupt, but always the four primary materials are competing for attention and continuation. In the final moments of the piece, these interruptions culminate in the combination of materials into something not seen previously in the piece, intended as the “end result” which is born from all that came before it.