veil score

8/14/2019 Veil Score

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Wrap yourself in the veil.

Read the following quote.It is Maya, the veil of deception, which blinds the eyes of

mortals, and makes them behold a world of which they cannot

say either that is or that is not: for it is like a dream it is like

the sunshine or the sane which the traveller takes from afar for

water, or the stray piece of rope he mistakes for a snake.

Press play on the film.https://vimeo.com/63764917

Begin.
https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F63764917&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH1W-bXJmLz7YirWn8sm4U3AiTInw


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This piece is meant for solo piano but can be reproduced for any size ensemble of any

instrumentation. The score consists of both object, text, and visual stimuli in an effort to fully convey th

textural quality of the intended experience, without using traditional notation.

This piece is an exploration into the ideas presented by writers such as Jorge Louis Borges in his

collection "Labyrinths" and my own philosophies on the ever-present quality of the 'Other' that seems to

pervade our lives. A veil is a thin, transparent barrier. With a little effort you can see through and even

lift its fabric, whatever it's fabric be made of. Through this piece I posit that same veil shielding our

experience of the now from the memories of past is that which shields us from experiencing ourselves

and experiencing the Other.

Borges story The Circular Ruins, depicts a man who dreams a boy into existence, but must erase

the childs memory of his creation. As the man dreams, he was troubled by the impression that all this

had happened before. Such troubled feeling of almost understanding the concepts behind time, are the

definitive qualities of the veil of deception. The mans troubled feeling is mirrored throughou

Labyrinths, with many characters on the verge of understanding the inexplicable qualities of time, bu

always just out of reach.

In the essay A New Refutation of Time, Borges explains this intense, troubled feeling, as the

realization that time is inconceivable and inexplicable.

I felt dead. I felt as an abstract spectator of the world, an indefinite fear imbued with

science, which is the best clarity of metaphysics. I did not think I had returned upstream on


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the supposed waters of Time rather I suspected that I was the possessor of a reticent or

absent sense of the inconceivable word eternity. Only later was I able to define that

imagination...Time, if we can intuitively grasp such an identity, is a delusion the difference

and inseparability of one moment belonging to its apparent past from another belonging to

its apparent present is sufficient to disintegrate it.

The film was created by taking 4 shots, dividing them evenly into 4 second clips, and then

establishing an order. I then cut the video to play forward, backwards, zoomed in, sideways, layered,

etc, but always maintaining the original order. The scenes were chosen based on color, texture, and

shape to create a palette of visual reference for the performer(s).

The physical veil should either be provided by the composer, venue, or performer(s). It should

be light in color, sheer enough to see through, and large enough to wrap a body in. The veil is meant to

provide the physical sensations of disconnection from something.


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Post Tonal Assignment

If I were to perform this piece, I would focus on the washed out colors I could obtain from my

instrument. If performing on violin, I would begin with soft, upper G-string colors, possibly harmonics, but

keep the bow pressure normal and full toned, relying solely on the tone color to guide the shape of the line.

Disregarding the rhythmic nature of the film for the first 20 seconds, I would just explore colors until the

moment arose to climb the fingerboard up through the D and A strings with Grisey-style bowing texture. I

would focus on fluttering and fitting in with the changing chords of the background music. Bow speed and

pressure would wildly vary and become sparser and sparser through the end of the piece.

veil score

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