Happened

for flute / clarinet / violin / cello // 1+ dancers ; 6 minutes
commissioned by Hub New Music, Collage New Music & Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (2024)

This work was written following a visit to the Black Mountain College Art Center and Museum in Fall 2024. I took inspiration from the ways in which the historical site (active between 1933-1957) had adorned new modifications and modern appendages. The tour centered on what was “original” to the college, and what was updated or came later – from buildings and parts of flooring, to an entire lake and water features built up for a boys’ camp that currently inhabits the property – and the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women (opened in 2008) down the road.

A few days before my flight into North Carolina, a friend of mine who grew up in the area explained that Asheville and the surrounding cities were built up by enslaved Black people, but now exists as one of the most gentrified cities in the country.

Musically, these ideas coalesce abstractly. Happened is built of small fragments with varying, distinct timbres. Some fragments come from existing pieces/songs, but simplified to extremes to focalize texture. The piece draws attention to the layering of ideas, histories, and memories; and how (re)contextualization occurs. It is intentionally quiet, in order to draw the listener in to observe the textural changes – some slow and gradual, and others more abrupt and jarring.

Additionally, the piece is written in open/non-traditional and text-based notations as an homage to the experimentation that happened during the active years of Black Mountain College.

Recording:
Hub New Music