Correspondence (2019)

Correspondence was composed for solo speaking percussionist, and is dedicated to Abigail Fisher, Katelyn King, and Alexv Rolfe, who banded together to commission it and who will all, I’m sure, have wonderfully different takes on its performance.

The instrumentation is built from a collection of wooden and metal objects, as well instruments from the drum set, all curated by the performer in order to create an idiosyncratic and personal sound world. I notated patterns that I think of almost as breakbeats; the stripped-down drum set drives much of this, but I also wanted to fold in the different textures and timbres that emerge from woods and metals. I hope that performers, by choosing how those instruments fit together, will feel like collaborators in the process of learning and performing the piece.

A non-musical collaboration also drove the piece’s genesis. I thought a lot about my father, about a writing project we’d begun years ago as a way to understand each others’ very different politics. We wrote letters back and forth, struggling to articulate our disagreements as well as the many things we shared. These are some of my most cherished conversations, and I am grateful for his willingness to struggle together with me to find the words. I imagine this piece as another letter in the stack, in which we realize that we have come to the same point of view, and reflect on the cost of and trigger for that shared understanding.

Abby has performed the piece several times, including a recent virtual performance at Carleton College. She also made this video: