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The Pequod

(arrangment)

for Flute, Harp, & Electronics

Instrumentation: Flute, Harp, and Electronics

Duration: 11:15

Commissioned by Catherine Gregory and Mélanie Genin

Premiered on 10/22/16 at at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center in New York, NY

About the Work

     The Pequod is the whaling ship in Moby Dick. I read Moby Dick last summer for the first time while on the coast of Oregon. The immensity of the dark Pacific coast only made the book more real to me. While reading I contemplated the scope of the Pequod’s journey on the vast sea and the scope of Captain Ahab's futile quest to conquer the white whale, which led to the Pequod's inevitable demise. It was both beautiful and terrifying and this piece tries to capture the spirit of the novel. I use the electronics and strings in a way that at times are abrasive and grating in order to feel the immense weight of an unforgiving and impartial world, and other times the music emerges with moments of light simplicity out of the darker more sonically oppressive moments.

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