A Poorly Guided Meditation

Nicholas Batina

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Large Ensemble

2022

8 min.

Accordion

Pitched Percussion

Unpitched Percussion

Program Notes: A Poorly Guided Meditation is based on the hassles of getting settled into a meditation practice when I was still a novice. When I first started, I had lots of troubles relaxing into the moment, always seeing thoughts like bees buzzing around my head and clinging onto them! It was this, or the opposite problem, falling asleep while sitting upright... That being said, it was always curious the kinds of imagery that would pop up while in that beginning phase, which would usually present themselves as strange and wacky flights of fantasy. This piece is meant to illustrate that phenomenon, with the 8’ min span of time being divided into strict 40 second intervals (simulating a shorter version of my own meditation timer), embarking on extreme variation of each previous section as the cue arrives. Groove’ith on.
Recording Notes: Instrumentalists: Per-Niklas Barth, Blake Blaufeld, Thomas Cobb, Shane Corwin, Jessica Diaz, Xingyu Guan, Adriana Harrison, Iwo Jedynecki, Peter Kang, Shun Lopez, Ryan Learned, Paden Lindstrom, AJ Morrissey, Jessie Ong, Abigail Rodriguez, Grace Sprecher, McKenzie Squires, Julia Tan, Tim Topoly, Nick Urbanic, Carter Way, Brendan Williams, Jacky Xu, Shiqi Zhong
Ensemble Name: NYU Percussion Ensemble: Iwo Jedynecki, Solo Accordion & Jonathan Haas, Director/Conductor