Aeterna

Aeterna was inspired by the writings of Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard evolutionary biologist. As I read about his descriptions of bacterial biomass, or punctuated equilibrium, I began to imagine how this might apply to listening. At the same time, I was exploring the audio synthesis program CSound. As I generated source sounds that were then altered in some way - perhaps filtering, or by changing the modulating frequency - I realized that I was mutating the sounds much like Gould described mutating DNA.

There are 6 layers of sound that are connected throughout the duration of Aeterna, and a layer of grains of sound roughly equivalent to bacteria (the largest organisms on Earth according to their biomass, and haven’t changed much in millennia). The layers rise to the foreground at times, and have connective tissue (or DNA, I suppose) that relate them to previous sounds within that layer.

This piece not only was the first of my compositions that began to explore a phenomenological, or experiential approach to listening, but it was also a statement on form. Much like the artist Bob Morris sought to place a frame around everyday objects (such as literally placing a frame on top of a patch of grass), I suggest that what you’re hearing is taken from a larger sound world that began before and continues after the boundaries that I chose.