Noctilucent Type I (Veils)

A piece for violin, cello, bass clarinet, and piano, composed in early 2022. This work explores flowing, non-hierarchical organization, drawing connections between the instruments’ timbral variety. It traces movements, gestures, and shifts of intensity – congealing, dissipating, and hovering between the two without settling. These abstract considerations made me think of a cloud: an object that is entirely surface, at once empty and substantive. Similarly, the piece focuses on surface, texture, resonance, and subtle ebbs and flows.

Noctilucent clouds, found at high altitudes in polar regions, are fragile structures that appear and disappear quickly. Often in the background to other cloud forms, they sometimes catch the sun’s rays even after sunset and appear momentarily against a darkened sky.