(2026) XII. | 1. As Above 2. So Below

XII. 
1. As Above · 2. So Below (Duration: Approx. 7 minutes)
for percussion ensemble (twelve players)
For Texas Christian University

Program note:

Twelve is a powerful number that carries so much symbolism.  And it is also the number of players in this particular piece.  The movement titles As above, so below comes from the Emerald Tablet, the Hermetic text that holds that the pattern of the heavens repeats in the pattern of the earth, and again in the body.  The piece begins with an empty stage. Twelve players stand in the wings with egg shakers, caxixi, rainsticks and small bells, playing in the distance, and walk slowly to their stations while they play. Sound arriving from offstage loses its high frequencies to the walls and the wings, so the ensemble brightens as it emerges, like a crescendo performed by the room rather than by the players. By the time the twelve have arrived, the architecture has assembled itself in front of the audience.As Above works in that bright, wide, locatable register; So Below descends into the fused, placeless one, and the two movements are tied across the barline without a break.    The end reverses the beginning. One at a time the players leave their instruments and walk toward centre stage, until all twelve are standing in a semicircle facing the audience with nothing in their hands but shakers and other small instruments.

Instrumentation: