Description

Source of Breath, Source of Life was commissioned by Eighth Blackbird with the specific intent that it would be recorded and serve as an installation in a multi-media pavilion created by Foresight Design for the Chicago Green Festival ’07. Based on the notion of a “Sustainable City’” this is a short work that explores the conflict between maintaining a sustainable environment and our dependence on an inefficient industry that spoils it and ultimately contributes to what we now refer to as global climate change. The most essential element of our environment, the pure air we breathe, is continually compromised in the pursuit of ever more convenient lifestyles. As an attempt to make this manifest, the sound of breathing is used as a musical idea throughout the piece, but ultimately succumbs to the busy musical lines and industrial sounds (metallic clanks, pounding, etc.) that dominate as the piece progresses. At the point where it seems hope is lost, breath returns amidst chaos and the piece concludes with a musical exhale. This work is dedicated to my son Leo, who is to be born at the end of May and for whom I pray will grow up in a world that keeps striving to do better.