tautology n. [Gk tauto the same + logy word] 1 The contextual repetition, originally of the same word or phrase, now usually of the same idea or statement in different words, especially as a fault of style. M16. 2 An instance of this; a tautological phrase or expression. L16. 3 Philosophy. The absolute identification of cause and effect; an expression of this. rare. M17. 4 Logic. A compound proposition which is unconditionally true for all the truth-possibilities of its component propositions and by virtue of its logical form. E20. b A proposition that is true by virtue of the meaning of its terms. M20. — Oxford English Dictionary
tautology n. [Eng colloq tot a small child + Gk logy word] 1 Of or pertaining to the lexicon of a small child, especially before the inception of articulate speech. E21.
Tautology was composed between July and December, 2003, for Volti as a part of their Choral Arts Laboratory. In this work, I set out to explore pure sound without regard to word or meaning, and my approach was inspired by the development of speech in my son Benjamin over the first year of his life. Every sound in the piece was made by him during this formative period, though I have taken the liberty to assemble the sounds into a musical structure. In a sense, I set out to recapitulate the universal exploration of sound that each of us undertakes and to translate this into music, which is often understood to derive from this very pre-articulate phase of development. Repetition (as per the official definition of tautology) is one of the primary means of this exploration and figures prominently in the piece.
Choral
“Ferry Bluff” (Gardner)
Ferry Bluff was composed during March and April, 1999 and is a setting of a poem by Virginia poet Thomas Gardner. The poem describes an autumn day in Wisconsin when the poet, standing on a sandstone bluff above a river, loses his sense of self. The music attempts both to capture the atmospheric sense of the text and to portray many of the specific images. Below is the poet’s response to hearing my setting of his poem:
“Ferry Bluff is really lovely. You’ve taken some very simple words and almost transformed them to wind and water, to elements. Mostly I found myself thinking of contrasts–the liquid layers of sound, voices dropping down through veils of them, in contrast to solid things and bursts of clarity; the play between the temporarily stable “I” and the dissolving, shifting world outside; and so on. It’s a “contest” or debate or negotiation I think about (teach about) all the time, so I’m not surprised to find it in this poem, but how much richer it seems put in musical terms.”
“But what after all is one night?” (Woolf)
“But what after all is one night?” is a setting of a passage from the “time passes” section of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse.
Raoul Owl (Hollander)
“Raoul Owl” is a setting of the eponymous poem by John Hollander from his illustrated collection of children’s poems “A Book of Various Owls”. “Raoul Owl” is a merry description of an owl singing to his (hoped for) mate. It is intended as a companion piece to my earlier “Vowel Owl”.
Vowel Owl (Hollander)
“Vowel Owl” is a setting of the eponymous poem by John Hollander from his illustrated collection of children’s poems “A Book of Various Owls”. “Vowel Owl” is a haunting but wry description of an owl who only sings in vowels. It was commissioned and premiered by the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus.