MINDFUL(L)
alto saxophone, viola, prayer bowl, and found percussion.
Written for the UPBEAT International Summer School Composer/Performer program, in Milna, Croatia.
Tibetan prayer bowls, also called singing bowls, are used by monks to indicate changes in activity during the day as well as to indicate the beginning of silent meditation. After recently acquiring my own singing bowl, I became fascinated by how it might feel to achieve such a complete calmness in the mind through meditation with the sound of the bowl, as well as how the brain comes to reach that state. What states may the mind pass through to get there? The ideas of changing states of mind, transformational scenes of thought, and the brain during calm meditation (or lack thereof) in this piece were all initially inspired by the ways in which prayer bowls are used in daily life.
Duration: 7’
Instrumentation/Equipment:
Alto Saxophone, Viola, Prayer Bowl (F#), 3 found percussion items (high/middle/low register pitches/timbres).
Buy the score!
(bandcamp)
Performances:
Mindful(l) “Fictions” Senior Recital, March 30, 2019; Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater, University of North Texas; Gus Arnold, Kathleen Crabtree, and Stephen Symank.
Mindful(l) (premiere) Performed July 31, 2017 UPBEAT International Summer School, Milna, Brac, Croatia; Sequoyah Sugiyama, Erik Anderson, Wataru Niimori.
Cover art: digital painting by Delanie Molnar.