I. Benjy (i)
II. Quentin (i)
III. Benjy (ii)
IV. Quentin (ii)
Text selected from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
Duration: 14 mins
Premiere: April 5, 2024 | The Commonwealth School Chorale with Aaron Li (violin 1), Olivia Wang (violin 2), Tomi Nishioka (viola), and Mirai Nishioka (cello) | First Church in Boston
“only when the clock stops...” takes its title from William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Split into four movements, the music is inspired by the narratives of two characters, Benjy and Quentin. The piece explores the escaping of time that both of these characters undertake in Faulkner’s novel: Benjy’s narrative contemplates the relationship between the past, present, and future; he hopes to escape time by looping himself in a moment of the past. Quentin, on the other hand, contemplates the slowing down or speeding up of time; constantly aware of “a minute clicking of little wheels” that happen every second, from his watch to the grandfather clock to the cathedral bells across the river.
This piece examines Benjy’s and Quentin’s attempts to escape time in musical terms; cells of rhythmic and melodic content repeat themselves, almost obsessively, in an attempt to freeze time. Musical time itself, just like Quentin’s perception of time, is slowed down yet also sped up, occasionally unnoticeable and at other times overwhelming. In Quentin’s own words, “You can be oblivious to the sound [of a watch or a clock] for a long while, then in a second of ticking it can create in the mind unbroken the long diminishing parade of time you didn’t hear.”
The four movements of this piece are divided with the first and third movements resembling Benjy’s narrative, while the second and fourth resemble Quentin’s narrative. However, the piece is intended to be performed as a whole.
I. Benjy (i)
Caddy, she smelled like trees in the rain
I wasn't crying, but I couldn't stop
I wasn't crying, but the ground wasn't still
and then I was crying
I couldn't stop, I couldn't stop.
I began to cry
Caddy, she smelled like trees in the rain
I could hear the water
I could hear the water
I listened to it
I listened to the water
I couldn’t hear the water
II. Quentin (i)
…
only when the clock stops, does time come to life
III. Benjy (ii)
i was trying to
(and) trying to say
(and) trying to say
(and)
the bright shapes began
i was trying to say
and trying to say
and
the bright shapes began to stop
and I tried to get out
I tried to get out
but the bright shapes were going again
i couldn’t
i couldn’t see it
couldn’t see it
i could hear the dark
then the dark began to go in smooth, bright shapes,
like it always does
like it always does
IV. Quentin (ii)
I began to feel the water
the honeysuckle getting stronger and stronger
and I couldnt hear anything (at all)
and the water
and then the bird again
(and I left) I left the bridge
and I didnt feel anything at all
[spoken text]
The first note sounded
[spoken text]
Somewhere I heard bells
[spoken text]*
every man is the arbiter of his own virtues but let no man prescribe for another mans wellbeing and i temporary and he was the saddest word of all there is nothing else in the world its not despair until time its not even time until it was
i was
i am not
*one passage taken from Shakespeare’s Macbeth