All words are already decided

10-14 min

Curious Chamber Players
Rei Munakata, conductor

14 April 2015
MATA Festival 2015
The Kitchen
New York, New York

flute/piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello, piano

All words are already decided was originally inspired by an experience I had with my then one-year-old daughter during a short layover in Dubai. The piece it became, after gestating for several years, being put aside, and later revised, had very little to do with that experience, instead becoming something that exists on its own as pure music, that though sometimes diverted, moves forward with a drive and power from its beginning to its end.

At its completion, I was at a loss for a name until I stumbled upon a line from the ancient Volsung saga: Speech or silence, you yourself must choose. All words are already decided. Like children, musical ideas can become many things, and it is often not clear what they are even as they are becoming. As composers, we learn to follow our ear and the path that seems right at that time in our lives, allowing the music to form, however messy, shaping and guiding it in ways that match our manner of speaking and telling a story. We make choices and our work becomes what it is, always was, and will be.

-TT