Dheere (2019)
for soprano, contrabass and electronics
7'30
Premiered by LIGAMENT (Anikka Kildegard and Will Yager) at New Music on the Point on 23rd June, 2019.
Dohas are two lined poems - couplets, especially common in North-west Indian, Pakistani and Arabic poetry of the medieval period. These short poems have an extreme amount of expressive potential and meaning, both at surface and underneath. The text says the following:
Everything unfolds at its own pace,
One may water the plant endlessly, but fruit is only borne in its season.
The initial, theatrical element is used to contextualize the electronics that is used in the piece - primarily a sine wave layered with noise of paper being crushed, and flowing water. This is followed by a slow unravelling of the first line of the text, emphasizing Dheere Dheere - “slowly.” The bass has short, agitated interjections - attempting to force its speed and pace on the ensemble, but only gets to push forward with this idea towards the end of the piece. Some ideas take their time, while others burst and disappear as quick as they came.