Bystanders at Half

" "Bystanders at Half" arises from the internal conflicts of one who can not afford to be either of the extremes, nor the inbetween.

To influence and to be influenced; to be both but to be neither; to be that which is neither past nor future, but can not be the present. To be never null, as one can't simply "not be", but also to never be whole. To be something and to be "anti-something", but not be two sides of a two-sided coin.

This conflict is precisely the matter of the piece's internal dialogue, where one can only be a bystander. A bystander of multiplicity. A bystander who watches that which historically lingers: the written out ornamentations and diminutions of Caccini; the written rubato of George Enescu; the polyphonic and rhythmic-melodic thinking of Arnold Schoenberg; the chord formations of modern jazz fusion; the bitonality of Florent Schmitt; the coordinated harmony and horizontal melodic thinking of Machaut and Dufay; the rhythmic forces of late Ligeti and progressive rock; the syncopation and density of Brazilian Popular Music; and the spaced free-flowing-events phraseology of late Beethoven sonatas. A piece which is encapsulated by all of this, and at the same time, none of this. This is to be a bystander."