Scivia

ensemble electric guitar, percussion, cello
written fall 2019
duration 12 minutes

premiered December 14 2019, The Undercroft, by Jeremy Lyons (gtr.), Nonoka Mizukami (perc.), Peter Kibbe (vc.)

Written for and premiered by Pique Collective, whose artistic flexibility and omnivorous repertoire proved wonderfully inspiring

Faith has been an important part of my life for quite some time, and yet in spite of this, I have never felt especially inspired to contend with these beliefs in my music. I have a great respect for the theologians, philosophers, artists, and musicians who made their reflections on the Holy their life’s work, but up until now, I have not yet felt a particular conviction to do so in my compositions.

Even so, mysticism and worship, in their sincerest forms, are subjects of great interest to me for their reflection of innermost ideals in an outward, sometimes ecstatic, fashion. My recent work has been dominated by lyricism, repetition, and metrical freedom; thus, it was only a matter of time before I turned to the music of Leonin, Perotin, and Hildegard von Bingen for guidance.

I became especially enamored with the latter composer’s first volume of sacred visions, Scivias, a sprawlingly ambitious work of illustrations, poetry, and music. The totality of her vision in depicting these prophetic revelations was deeply moving to me, inspiring me to compose this piece, Scivia.

Scivia is an essentially symmetrical piece. The music begins with a long descent from the highest registers of each instrument, moving through scattered suggestions and thematic fragments. Once each instrument has reached their earthiest lows, these fragmentary wisps coalesce into a melismatic, longlined whole. The music drifts upward once more, higher and higher, growing in passion and ecstasy until overflowing and vanishing back into nothingness.