Duration: 7-9 minutes
For: flute and live electronics
Commissioned by Wildflower Composers, Naiads & Dryads grew out of a collaborative workshop process with flautist Chelsea Meynig. The first part explores the special sound created when a flutist sings into their instrument while playing, their voice glissing in and out of unison with the flute. To me, the undulating sound evokes a call from beyond – a conch shell or a siren’s song – inviting us to explore the depths and discover what lies beneath the surface. In the second part, electronic sounds created through feedback create fractal-like surges and sparkles, revitalizing the hypnotic undulations.
While creating this work for the Wildflower Composers Festival 2024, a program for young female, transgender, nonbinary, and genderqueer composers, I found myself thinking about what I would like to pass on to these students, not only as artists, but as young people entering a world deeply in conflict with itself: Grief is a (sometimes unbearably) long process of self-renewal. But if you persist through its depths, you will be reconnected with the exhilaration of being alive.
I named the piece after two spiritual guardians of the natural world, a reminder that the otherworldly aspects of nature can be places where we both lose and find ourselves at the same time.
Recording
Performed by Chelsea Meynig (flute) and Cerulean S. Payne-Passmore (live electronics).