An object of some concern

Most of my friends could tell you that I have a tendency towards understatement, especially when it comes to talking about my inner life. When I say, then, that something is “an object of some concern,” you can be sure it’s actually quite a large point of worry for me, the kind of anxiety-inducing thing I often become fixated on, turning around and around in my mind and worrying myself more all the while. This piece is about that experience of becoming stuck on a troubling feeling, in general, and about a specific worrisome fixation of mine in particular, the climate crisis. The piece opens with a violent plunge in the strings that mimics the feeling of suddenly awakening in the middle of the night, unable to breathe. From there the trio propels itself forward with music that is unrelenting and obsessive, constantly straining higher and higher, threatening to snap, until finally it reaches its breaking point. This, of course, represents the experience of mounting anxiety, of becoming consumed by the feeling. But more than that, at the risk of being a bit too on the nose, I find that it also mimics the trajectory of global temperatures and the climate emergency.