i. heaven

ii. hell

iii. limbo

Michelle Ordorica and Liam Buell, Violin; Chen Lin and Jon Blumhofer, Viola; Jessye Billings-White and Lia Mooney, Cello; Richard Yates and Andy Vores, Piano

Recorded at Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory

December 2, 2005

program notes:

The Edge of the World is a vision that I had of my limit – the point at which I would hit the wall that is my natural abilities and become powerless to proceed further. It is my reaction against coming to terms with the limits of how far I can stretch my definition of "music", as well as my rejection of the idea that I have advanced enough on the wall that symbolizes both my natural abilities, as well as the limitations of acoustic music, and need not move further. Every time one writes a piece that explores new territory, one is faced with the challenge of either bettering it or marching in place. In The Edge of the World, I have determined that there is always new territory to explore if one has the will to do so. The piece is about the discovery and re-discovery of certain core musical precepts, as well as the experimentation that results from their implementation. The Edge of the World takes on new ground in terms of sonic structure, orchestrational proportion, the variance of the concept of time, and chaos, and challenges one's opinion on what can be considered a standalone cohesive work.     The Edge of the World calls for different orchestrations for each movement: in Heaven, the orchestration is for several piano quartets; in Hell, the orchestration is one piano quartet; and the movement Limbo is for electronics alone. Each movement relies on sound, range, and a new concept of time to define its form, and each movement is an exploration of texture within itself; the first being a chaotic stretch of slowly-changing sonic spectra, the second being of an intensely-controlled systematic design, and the third being an electronic experiment with these techniques, as well as a few new ones.