Tide Tiding Time is a rumination on time and structure that was inspired by the Penobscot Bay in Maine. The tide there changes by about twelve feet between low and high tide, which makes for an ever-shifting seascape. The music of Tide Tiding Time is informed by activities that I engaged in on those shores growing up: swimming, skipping stones, collecting sea glass, piling together drift wood, seeking out crabs, periwinkles, and other crustaceans. Like the tide, the work follows a rigorous structure: the same proportions are applied to each movement (and to each section and sub-section, respectively), but they unfold within their own characteristic sound world.
Shells and Stones, the first and most substantial movement, presents a patchwork of musical materials that reflect the heterogeneous composition of a beach. The second movement, Flotsam/Jetsam, is a rhapsody that explores various musical objects from many different perspectives, as if they were tossed by waves and washed ashore. The title of the third movement, “and all motion/is a crab,” comes from poet Charles Olson. A crab moves sideways, and is used by Olson as a striking metaphor for his own dynamic, non-linear approach to the creative process. This short movement varies the timbre of every gesture to create a kaleidoscope of colors. Sand & Surf, the fourth movement, strives to capture the exuberance of playing by the waterside. The fifth and final movement, Wind + Waves, pays homage to the staggering power of the natural world as seen from the edge of the sea. A ghostly wind blows up into a gale, and builds in intensity to a climax. In writing it at Bowdoin College in Maine, I remembered the storm that blows through Scott Island in Robert McCloskey’s Time of Wonder, a book that encapsulates the magic of Penobscot Bay.