floating, heavy, liquid, pink
for mixed septet
fl./afl./picc., cl./bcl., trp., hn., pno., vln., vc.
2019
7’
premiered by the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth
floating, heavy, liquid, pink was inspired by a sculpture called Pink Tons by Roni Horn - a large, frosted pink, glass cube. It is a fascinating object: it is extremely heavy yet looks almost as if it would float; it appears cloudy when viewed from the side, transparent when viewed from above, and yet is completely solid. Horn says:
what fascinates me has a lot to do with the essence of something that has one appearance but is really something completely different. For example, glass is a (super-cooled) liquid, not a solid. It’s a pretty amazing thing that a material as ubiquitous as glass can masquerade like that. It’s like having a mask but the mask is identical to the real thing.
This piece is a recollection of viewing Pink Tons for the first time, from first glimpse, to studying it closely, to turning away.
