Sanguine
The Covid-19 pandemic reaffirmed for me that music is fundamentally a social activity, best experienced in a room with fellow human beings. Yet these hardships also created new opportunities for collaboration across great distances, and I am grateful for the many remote projects I was able to realize during this difficult year.
Sanguine was written for Los Angeles-based cellist Ashley Walters through the nief-norf 1:1 program. Though we weren’t able to gather in person in Tennessee, Ashley and I developed Sanguine through a series of Zoom sessions in 2020. I am grateful for Ashley’s artistry and the time she took with me to make this piece possible.
Sanguine is written in just intonation and draws on pitches from the natural harmonic series to create pure sonorities alongside unexpected microtonal dissonances. It is inspired by fiddling and folk idioms as well as the music of just-intonation pioneers like Ben Johnston and James Tenney.
The title Sanguine deliberately evokes both blood and hope. During a year defined by distance and isolation, the piece became a reminder that music ultimately depends on bodies: blood in our veins, fingers on strings, vibrations in the air, and listeners gathered to hear them. It reflects both a hope for human connection and a renewed appreciation for the physical act of music-making itself.