epidemia
for symphony orchestra, a meditation on COVID-19 (2020)

3(pc).3(ca).3(bcl).3(kbn)-4.3.3.1-2perc-st(8.8.6.6.4)

If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic has proven that the human species is interconnected. The virus hosts not only on the life of an individual, but on the very network of relationship and contact we have with one another.  Our health experts describe an “infection curve”, a graph that plots the growth, peak, and diminution of the virus’s spread amongst society. They warn that, unflattened, the peak a COVID-19 infection could prove disastrous for our public health. These mathematical models are, these days, seared into my mind – without our intervention, the facts are cold, hard, unflinching, inevitable. 

epidimia is a meditation on these principles of viral spread and promulgation. The “virus”, expressed through micropolyphonic activity in the strings, spreads from the middle of the sonic spectrum outwards to the lowest and highest registers. The peak occurs in m. 26; a second and lesser wave peaks in bar 40. The human pain and suffering left in its wake is expressed through aching chords in the winds which fit within the architectural trajectory of the spread. The “corona” in “coronavirus” is derived from crown-like spikes found on its surface; these spikes are represented through bright flares in the upper winds and strings. In these ways, the material and structure of epidemia are derived from both the microscopic view of the novel coronavirus and a macroscopic view of its spread throughout our species over time.  Composing in this rigid, mathematical, and abstract mode allowed me to conceptualize this moment in history; only in the introduction, “emergence…”, and conclusion, “prayer.”, could I muster the will to compose a single sobbing melodic line. Even as we account for every tragedy of this moment, we must remember to be human.